Carlos J. Bustamante, PhD

Carlos J. Bustamante is a professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry, and is the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of Biophysics at University of California, Berkeley. He is also a biophysics faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Bustamante’s work is on the physical forces behind the functioning and replication of DNA molecules. Using atomic force microscopes and laser tweezers he and his research group have explored the subtle operations of DNA molecules as they have tested and manipulated individual molecules pioneering many new techniques in order to study molecules one at a time.

Since 1998 Bustamante has held joint appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, being a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, a Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Physics. In addition, he serves as the Director of the Advanced Microscopies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

He was elected as an APS Fellow in 1995 and received the Richtmyer Award from the AAPT in 2005. Bustamante is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bustamante earned a bachelors degree in biology at the Cayetano Heredia University and a masters in biochemistry at the National University of San Marcos. He then attended the University of California – Berkeley and obtained a Ph. D. in Biophysics in 1981. After a post-doc at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Dr. Bustamante began work at the University of New Mexico from 1982-1990 and then moved to the University of Oregon.