BARBARA LOW

LOW--Barbara Barbara Wharton Low, Professor Emerita of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, passed away on January 10, 2019 at age 98. Dr. Low received a B.A. degree from Somerville College of Oxford University in 1943, followed by M.A. and D. Phil. degrees from Oxford University in 1946 and 1948. As a doctoral student with Nobel Laureate Dr. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Dr. Low determined the X-ray crystallographic structure of penicillin, the world's first antibiotic. She was a research associate with Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling at California Institute of Technology and Edwin Cohn at Harvard University before being appointed Assistant Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at Harvard in 1950. Dr. Low moved to Columbia as Associate Professor in 1956 and was named Professor in 1966. She retired as Professor in 1990 and taught as Special Lecturer until 2013. Her research at Columbia on snake venom neurotoxins advanced understanding of the acetylcholine receptor, a key component of the nervous system and target of the toxins. Barbara was preceded in death by husband Metchie J.E. Budka in 1995 and sister Marjorie Elizabeth Camp in 2002. Barbara is survived by niece Margaret Jennifer Cook and Margaret's children and grandchildren.