Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard E. “Dick” Dickerson, a giant in structural biology, passed away peacefully on May 14, 2025, at the age of 93. He was surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Lola, who passed away one year earlier.
Dick was a renowned researcher, teacher, writer, administrator, and a valued colleague and friend. He was a beloved mentor of the many students who trained in his laboratory.
The son of Earl and Zelda Dickerson, Dick was born in Casey, Illinois. He excelled in academics and won a scholarship to Carnegie Institute of Technology, receiving a B.S. in chemistry in 1953. He went on to study structural biology, receiving a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1957, working in the laboratory of Professor William Lipscomb (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1976) at the University of Minnesota, where he studied small molecule crystallography.
Dick then carried out a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of the Professor John Kendrew (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1962). Since the beginning of his career, Dick’s research in structural biology was ground-breaking. In Kendrew’s lab, he was part of the group that solved the first crystal structure of a protein molecule, myoglobin.
Both Lipscomb and Kendrew were awarded Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, at least in part for the work that Dick contributed during his time with them.
Dick returned to the U.S. in 1959 and set up a lab at the University of Illinois, where he produced the famous “sausage” diagram of myoglobin, the basis for all future representations of atomic structures of proteins from those of Jane Richardson to those of Irving Geis and then to computer images.
In 1963, Dick moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he continued his work on determining the crystal structure of large molecules such as cytochrome c. Dick later shifted his focus to the structure of DNA and was among the first investigators to determine the crystal structure of the DNA double-helix.
While at Caltech, Dick’s structural study of cytochrome c was expanded into a beautiful exposition of molecular evolution. To artistically describe this work, he constructed a large-scale mosaic representing the amino acid sequences of cytochrome c from species ranging from humans to plants. Each sequence was shown as a horizontal row of colored tiles correponding to each of the twenty canonical amino acids allowing the viewer to quickly appreciate how each of the amino acid positions was conserved over the half billion years of evolution that separated these species. This mosaic is now part of the permanent art collection of Paul D. Boyer Hall as shown in the photograph of its first-floor location near the seminar room.
Dick also designed the display in a cabinet facing the mosaic that included early models of amino acids and proteins. The display also contains the photograph below on the right showing himself, Robert Stroud, Tsunehiro Takano, and David Eisenberg working on an atomic model of cytochrome c. Across the hall from these displays in Boyer Hall is an original sketch of the structure of myoglobin done by Dickerson in collaboration with the scientific illustrator Irving Geis. Their collaboration established clear windows into the complex structures of proteins. The archive of Geis’ drawings inspired by Dick were purchased by Professor Tom Cech for the collection of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an important part of the history of structural biology.
In 1981, Dick moved his lab to UCLA and then served as the Director of the Molecular Biology Institute from 1983-1994. At UCLA, Dick changed his focus to DNA and determined the first atomic structure of the B form of DNA. Watson was quoted as saying that this structure convinced him for the first time that the Watson-Crick structure was correct! In 1985, Dick was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dick was a prolific author; in addition to many seminal papers in structural biology he authored multiple textbooks on physical chemistry, general chemistry, biology, protein chemistry, and evolution. Dickerson’s energy was also reflected in his non-research writings. In 2005, he wrote “Present at the Flood: How Structural Molecular Biology Came About” and in 2009 a history of the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute “The Making of an Institute: The MBI at UCLA – 1960-1978”. He also authored a book about the artwork in Paul Boyer Hall, the home of the Molecular Biology Institute.
Dick retired in 2004, but never lost his love of learning, turning his passion towards historical French political artwork and lifelong love of opera.
“Dick was so amazingly competent: in experiments, in computer coding, in writing, in lecturing, and even in art,” said Professor David Eisenberg. “His collaborations with Irv Geis on artistic representations proteins and DNA alone advanced understanding of biology. I recall Dick moving his typewriter into the lab, churning out his books as we worked around him, where he was always ready to answer questions.”
“Dick thought deeply about evolutionary theory and wrote tracts to attack creationist views,” Eisenberg said. “He was also a compulsive hobbyist. His hobbies over time included building harpsichords, collecting German hyperinflation paper currency, collecting ancient typewriters and calculating machines, collecting books on Reynard the Fox. He built complete collections; then sold them off to finance his next hobby. For my 50th birthday he gave me a duplicate of one of his old typewriters.”
In 2021, to honor Dickerson on the occasion of his 90th birthday, UCLA established a new fund to support an enriched biochemistry seminar series on campus. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, the fund has strengthened the ability of UCLA’s biochemists, as well as its molecular and structural biologists, to uphold the tradition of bringing the world’s leading scientific minds to campus to speak and engage with faculty and students. Dick’s former postdoctoral scholar, Professor Robert Stroud (University of California, San Francisco), delivered the inaugural Richard E. Dickerson Lecture on December 1, 2022. Since then, several distinguished scientists have given a Dickerson Lecture.
“Dick is still such an enormous influence on our thinking not just of proteins, structure, also of origins of life, chemistry, matter and the Universe,” Stroud said. “For me, my postdoc with Dick remains one of the highlights of my life.”
While at the University of Minnesota, Dick worked on more than his Ph.D.; he met and wooed Lola Mae Hulderson, who he wed in 1956 shortly before they left for Cambridge. Dick and Lola were married for 68 years and had many adventures across the country together. Dick was an avid hiker and outdoorsman, and regularly went on hikes in the San Gabriel mountains near their home in Pasadena. Dick is survived by his children Ian, Dan, Lise, Sara, and Joyce, and nine grandchildren. Dick will be dearly missed as a father, educator, mentor, and master of unending puns.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Richard E. Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar fund at UCLA here.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@ucla.edu.
