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Robert Dirks (May 29, 1978 – February 3, 2015) was an American chemist known for his theoretical and experimental work in DNA nanotechnology. Born in Thailand to a Thai Chinese mother and American father, he moved to Spokane, Washington at a young age. Dirks was the first graduate student in Niles Pierce's research group at the California Institute of Technology, where his dissertation work was on algorithms and computational tools to analyze nucleic acid thermodynamics and predict their structure. He also performed experimental work developing a biochemical chain reaction to self-assemble nucleic acid devices. Dirks later worked at D. E. Shaw Research on algorithms for protein folding that could be used to design new pharmaceuticals. In February 2015, Dirks died in the Valhalla train crash, the deadliest accident in the history of Metro-North Railroad. An award for early-career achievement in molecular programming research was established in his honor. == Early life == Dirks was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1978. His father, Michael Dirks, was a mathematics teacher at the International School Bangkok recruited from the United States, his mother Suree a Thai Chinese woman who worked in a bank at the time. After about a year, the family, including older brother William, moved back to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada so that his father could pursue doctoral studies in mathematics education at the University of British Columbia. Four years later the family settled in the elder Dirks' hometown of Spokane, Washington, where he took a job teaching math at North Central High School and Spokane Falls Community College.〔 Robert attended Lewis and Clark High School, where he excelled academically, entering and winning many math competitions. He was selected to do cardiovascular research at the University of Washington over the summer before his senior year. During that year, he received the top score of 5 on every Advanced Placement exam he took, and was chosen as class valedictorian in 1996. Shortly after graduation Robert and three of his classmates learned that their entry in the ExploraVision national scientific contest was one of three high school winners earning them and their families a trip to Washington, D.C. The topic of their project was the future of nanotechnology. Although he had been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he chose instead to do his undergraduate work at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. There he did a double major in chemistry and math and a double minor in biology and music. In the latter area, he played bassoon, clarinet and piano.〔 After graduating ''summa cum laude'',〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.deshawresearch.com/people_c-b_dirks.html )〕 and with Phi Beta Kappa honors, from Wabash in 2000, he was accepted at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California where he began graduate studies in chemistry. He received his doctorate in 2005, and remained at Caltech for a postdoctoral fellowship. During his years there he met Christine Ueda, another doctoral student who became his wife.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Dirks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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