Howard Berg is the Herchel Smith Professor of Physics and a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and a member of the Rowland Institute for Science at Harvard. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University. Berg was on the faculty of the University of Colorado and Cal Tech before joining Harvard in 1986.
Berg’s lab applies methods from physics to biological problems. They strive to understand how a bacterium, such as E. coli, can sense changes in its environment and respond by swimming towards, or away from, a stimulus. To this end, the lab studies the mechanics of the bacterial flagellar motor and how it is regulated by signals from cell surface receptors.
Berg has received numerous awards and honors for his work including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
