Jim Neitzel: Lead Editor

James Neitzel is a Member of the Faculty (biochemistry) at The Evergreen State College. James received a B.A. degree with a major in chemistry and minor in biology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his first research work was in organic chemistry. He then attended Caltech on an NSF Graduate Fellowship. His graduate work was focused on structure-function interactions in proteins, focusing on immunoglobulins and hydrolytic enzymes. This work included some of the first uses of site-directed mutagenesis as a tool for studying proteins. He received his Ph.D. in chemical biology with a minor in biology. His research work continued with a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, where he worked with protein kinases.

He joined the faculty of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 1989. His early work at Evergreen included the genomic analysis of bacteriophage genomes and proteomes as principle investigator for a National Science Foundation Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions Grant. His current research interests include chemical analysis of fatty acids, both identifying chemical changes that occur with oxidation that may have biological importance, as well as analysis of the unusual lipids produced by bacteria. Undergraduate students working with him also conduct research on plant natural products. A focus of all of his work has been the application of methods taken from organic and physical chemistry to problems of biological interest. Almost all teaching at Evergreen is done in learning communities by interdisciplinary teams with significant laboratory components. In these teams James has taught organic and biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, microbiology and genetics. He also has a passionate interest in the chemistry and biology of food and cooking.