Dr. James E. Hopper, 1942-2017
Dr. James E. “Jim” Hopper died Jan. 21, 2017, at his home in Columbus, Ohio. Jim worked as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State College of Medicine for more than 25 years, from 1979 to 2006, and was part of the Emeritus Faculty Organization.
Jim was an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he received his BS, MS and PhD degrees. At the same time, he was a world-class gymnast and coach. For most of his career in science, Jim studied gene regulation in eukaryotes, focusing on the yeast galactose regulon. He started at the time when budding yeast was becoming the most powerful eukaryotic genetic model, and he used the power of yeast molecular genetics to address basic principles of transcriptional regulation. Owing to Jim’s research, the GAL4 system became one of the cornerstone mechanisms of transcriptional regulation that is now widely used well beyond yeast.
In 1979, Jim and his wife, Anita, were recruited to the then-young Department of Biological Chemistry at Penn State College of Medicine. It is hard to overestimate this brilliant scientific couple’s contributions to the scientific life and atmosphere of the department. Jim is especially remembered for his relentless enthusiasm and energy during seminars and meetings, his research talks and lectures, cracking politically incorrect but stunning jokes, his obsession with giving new life to lab items discarded on the loading dock (and somehow finding space in his lab to house them), and by the ardor and eloquence with which he fought mediocrity and compromises to the true meaning and purpose of science.
Jim and Anita’s move to The Ohio State University in 2006, where Jim became a professor of Biochemistry and Anita became Chair of Molecular Genetics, was for many the biggest scientific and personal loss the department has endured.
In the summer of 2015, Jim was diagnosed with meningioma and underwent an immediate operation. Jim remained optimistic as he said that his short-term goal was to walk his daughter Julie down the aisle and give her to the right man, and his long-term goal was to survive the disease. This first goal came true in June 2016. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated rapidly in late 2016 and Jim died in January with Anita and Julie at his side.
Jim Hopper will always stay in our memories as a brilliant scientist, talented educator, and great friend.
– James Broach, PhD, Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
If you're having trouble accessing this content, or would like it in another format, please email the Penn State College of Medicine web department.