Thomas Sakmar

Thomas P. Sakmar (born 1956) is an American physician-scientist and the former acting president of The Rockefeller University.[2] Prior to becoming acting president he was Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the Tri-Institutional MD–PhD Program. He earned his A.B. in chemistry from University of Chicago and in 1982 received his M.D. from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He carried out clinical training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral training with H. Gobind Khorana at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before starting the laboratory of molecular biology and biochemistry at The Rockefeller University in 1990.

Thomas P. Sakmar
Sakmar in 2015
Acting President of The Rockefeller University
In office February 11, 2002 (2002-02-11) – September 1, 2003 (2003-09-01)
Preceded by	Arnold J. Levine
Succeeded by	Sir Paul Nurse
Personal details
Born	1956 (age 64–65) Detroit, Michigan
Children	3
Residence	New York
Alma mater	University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for	Spectral tuning, G protein-coupled receptors
Awards	Honorary Doctorate from Karolinska Institute (2020)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Chemical biology
Institutions	The Rockefeller University Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	H. Gobind Khorana
Other academic advisors	Bruce Merrifield

With nearly 200 peer-reviewed research articles[3] he is best known for his work on spectral tuning[4] in photopigments and for developing drug discovery methods [5] targeting G protein-coupled receptors. He has been a senior fellow[6] of the Ellison Medical Foundation, an investigator [7] of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Marie Krogh Visiting Professor at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen as well as Guest Professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2020 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from Karolinska Institute.[8]