Penn State BMB department remembers Professor Emeritus Don Bryant
The Penn State Eberly College of Science community is mourning the loss of Don Bryant, an Academy Professor, Ernest C. Pollard Professor Emeritus of Biotechnology, and professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology, who died Aug. 28, 2024, after extended health issues.
“BMB was truly his home, and his contributions to our department were immense and foundational to our success today,” said Santhosh Girirajan, head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “Even in his final days, Don remained dedicated to his work. In one of his last emails to me, he shared his excitement about three of his papers being accepted and two others in the process of submission. He was a consummate scientist, always striving for excellence.”
During his 41 years at Penn State, Bryant and his associates have published nearly 450 papers over a 50-year period from 1972 to 2022. He mentored 86 graduate students and 38 postdoctoral researchers and taught countless undergraduate students. Among his mentees, three have won the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award, several have gone on to be department heads, one is a university provost, and one is a university vice president for research and economic development. To mark his retirement in 2022, Bryant announced a bequest to endow a new chair and a lectureship in his name.
“Don was one of the first people I met when I moved my lab to Penn State,” said Manuel Llinas, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and of chemistry. “He welcomed me early on and from day 1 always offered me advice on a wide range of topics. Personally, Don was an inspiration to me, and I am honored to carry the named chair that he relinquished, the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology."
Don's academic family in the biochemistry and molecular biology department gathered this semester for a celebration of life in his memory, sharing stories of his research, teaching, and service to the University as well as his scientific impact.
“Don cared deeply about his field of study and his role in bringing students into the scientific discipline that had captivated him for so many productive years,” said Scott Selleck, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. “Don has made substantial contributions to his field, at the level that any of us would be proud of and hopeful we could achieve. He moved the needle in a big way. Finally, Don cared about excellence in all disciplines of biochemistry and molecular biology, and he fully supported great science whenever he encountered it.”
Bryant joined the Penn State faculty in 1981 and was appointed the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology in 1992. Additionally, he held an adjunct research appointment at Montana State University from 2009 to 2020 and was a visiting professor in the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at Nanyang Technological University from 2013 to 2018. Bryant completed a Department of Energy postdoctoral research fellowship at Cornell University in 1981 and a National Science Foundation/National Council for Scientific Research postdoctoral fellowship at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1979. He earned a doctoral degree in molecular biology at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1977 and a bachelor's degree in chemistry with honors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972.
“Besides being a caring pillar of the department, he was special to me, having invited me to apply to the department while at a conference together, said Greg Ferry, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “I will forever be grateful for that and his many contributions over the years that elevated the department. He will be missed.”
And, as Don shared on his college website biography, he grew up on a dairy farm in northcentral Kentucky and became interested in science at an early age.
“I knew Don as a very rigorous and creative scientist, who I admired and always enjoyed being around,” added Phil Bevilacqua, distinguished professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular biology.
In his research, Bryant applied biochemical, genetic, and systems biology approaches to study the gene regulation, physiology, and structure of chlorophototrophic bacteria. Don was particularly interested in understanding photosynthesis in two groups of bacteria that differ in physiology and metabolism: cyanobacteria, which produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis; and green sulfur bacteria, which can survive only in environments where oxygen is absent. Bryant has recently investigated the physiology of bacteria that synthesize chlorophyll f, a pigment that absorbs light in some bacteria that perform photosynthesis. Chlorophyll f allows cyanobacteria that can produce it to grow in shaded environments where light in the far-red range (700-800 nm) predominates — and, importantly, where other cyanobacteria are unable to grow. Bryant demonstrated that, in addition to using chlorophyll f, cyanobacteria extensively remodel their photosynthetic apparatus when exposed to far-red light — findings that could potentially be extended to crop plants and provide a pathway to increasing yields.
“Don’s impact reached far from the walls of his own lab,” Girirajan said. “He was an exceptional scientist, publishing more than 350 papers. In fact, I remember seeing at least one high-profile publication coming out of this lab every year. He truly cared about the future of his science, and he always cared about the success and direction of our department.”
Longtime collaborator John Golbeck, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics and of Chemistry, reflected on his decades-long research partnership with Bryant, sharing that “our publications were wide-ranging between chemical physics and physical chemistry – and we were able to do this by working together. Don taught me that genetics is the engine for discover in biology, and biophysics is the mean for discovery. That is Don’s legacy.”
Bryant’s awards include the Award for Basic Research from the American Society for Microbiology in 2022, the Charles F. Kettering Award in Photosynthesis from the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2020, the D.C. White Research and Mentoring Award from the ASM in 2018, and the Daniel R. Tershak Memorial Teaching Award from the Penn State Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2010. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 1995 and as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011. Bryant served as an elected member of the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology from 2012 to 2018 and as the associate editor of the journal Archives of Microbiology and Photosynthesis Research and editor-in-chief of the journal Frontiers in Microbial Physiology and Metabolism. He also served two five-year terms as a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Biological Chemistry.