Dr Norman J. Dovichi has been appointed as the Grace-Rupley Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr Dovichi is a bioanalytical chemist and will be joining Notre Dame in the fall from the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr Dovichi is a superb scholar with deep insights into the way in which chemical measurements can affect other fields, principally, but not solely, biomedicine. Dr Dovichi is well known for having developed the measurement tools that allowed the human genome project to be completed. Indeed, he was named as an ‘unsung hero of the human genome project’ by Science Magazine in 2001. Dr Dovichi has >225 publications, >7500 citations, presented 35 named and special lectures, >95 plenary lectures, and >320 invited lectures, numerous prestigious awards, and is the associate editor of the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Currently, the focus of his work is on chemical cytometry - the complete, accurate analysis of the biochemical machinery of a single living cell as a function of the state of the cell in the cell cycle and its relation to disease state. This draws him to develop new measurement science because of the extreme challenges posed by the dynamic range (proteins present in copy numbers that vary by > 10^10), sensitivity (typically requiring single molecule capabilities) and recalcitrance of the measurement problem. This work pushes the envelope in terms of technical capabilities. Dr Dovichi is focusing his efforts on those areas where ultrasensitive chemical measurements can aid in the intelligent management of a course of therapy.