MCB Emeritus Professor Emory H. Braswell died September 27, 2021, leaving his wife Frima Braswell, three grown children and five grandchildren. Dr. Braswell started his career at UConn in 1962 in the Department of Chemistry. In 1967 he transferred to the Biochemistry and Biophysics Section of the Biological Sciences Group, the common ancestor of the Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), Physiology and Neuro Biology (PNB) and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) departments.
He became director of MC
B’s undergraduate biophysics degree program in 1993 and developed courses in molecular biophysics, biophysical methods, laboratory computing and instrumentation. His research focused on methodology for determining the mass, size, and shape of macromolecules, as well as establishing the mode and thermodynamics of their self-association and assembly.
From 1986 until he retired in 2002, Professor Braswell served as Head of the National Analytical Ultracentrifugation Facility at UConn, which was funded by the National Science Foundation for collaborative research with both academia and industry.
Professor Braswell was active in university affairs, and in the 1980s he was vocal in urging faculty adoption of the AAUP as a bargaining agent in sometimes difficult dealings with the UConn administration and state legislature on faculty governance and salary issues. He was an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.