Steven Schwartz

Regents Professor

Degrees and Appointments 

  • B.A. (Chemistry and Mathematics) 1980, Columbia University New York
  • Ph.D. (Theoretical Chemistry) 1984, University of California (Berkeley)

Field of Study: Physical Chemistry

Awards and Honors

  • Fellow American Physical Society , 2006
  • Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science , 2007
  • Scholar in Residence Institut des Hautes Etudies Scientifiques Paris, 2008-2010
  • Chair, Biophysical Division, American Physical Society 2015

Research Specialties: Chemical Physics, Chemical Reaction Dynamics/Kinetics/Interactions​, Theory Modeling and Simulation, and rare event simulation methods applied to biological systems

Our research program is focused on physical and chemical processes in complex systems. We both develop new methods to study such systems and apply the methods to problems of real interest to scientists and society.

The focus at present is:

•   understanding how chemical reactions in enzymes work, with the eventual goal being able to use these principles to build new artificial bio-inspired catalysts,

•   understanding how mutations in cardiac proteins cause disease and how we may treat such problems,

•   using machine learning to predict structural dynamics in protein complexes.

The methods we use involve large scale computation coupled with sophisticated mathematical methods such as rare event simulation, reaction coordinate identification, and unbiased free energy computation along a reactive event. 

Positions are often available in the group for creative postdoctoral fellows and enthusiastic new graduate students. I invite you to visit our web page below for more information on research, current group members, and our complete list of publications.

Please see my Research Group Webpage for a complete list.

Representative Publications:

I. Zoi, J. Suarez, D. Antoniou, S.A. Cameron, V.L. Schramm, and S.D. Schwartz

Modulating enzyme catalysis through mutations designed to alter rapid protein dynamics, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 138, 3403−3409 (2016)

R.K. Harijan, I. Zoi, D. Antoniou, S.D. Schwartz, and V.L. Schramm

Catalytic site design for inverse heavy enzyme isotope effects in human purine nucleoside phosphorylase, P.N.A.S. USA, 114, 6456-6461 (2017)

I. Zoi, D. Antoniou, and S.D. Schwartz

Electric Fields and Fast Protein Dynamics in Enzymes, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 8, 6165–6170 (2017)

M.R. Williams, S.J. Lehman, J.C. Tardiff, and S.D. Schwartz

Atomic resolution probe for allostery in the regulatory thin filament , Proc. N. Acad. of Sci (USA) 113, 3257-3262 (2016)

M.R. Williams, J.C. Tardiff, and S.D. Schwartz

The mechanism of cardiac tropomyosin transitions on filamentous actin as revealed by all atom steered molecular dynamics simulations, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 9, 3301-3306 (2018)

E. Munusamy, C.M. Luft, J.E. Pemberton, and S.D. Schwartz

Unraveling the Differential Aggregation of Anionic and Nonionic Monorhamnolipids at air-water and oil-water Interfaces: A Classical Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study, J. Phys Chem B, 122, 6403-6416 (2018)