# Jacqueline K. Barton delivers Frank H. Westheimer Prize Lecture November 16, 2022 - [ News ](/news-categories/news) On Tuesday, November 15 Professor Jacqueline K. Barton delivered her Frank H. Westheimer Prize Lecture entitled "Signaling through DNA." Professor Barton was awarded the Westheimer Prize in 2020. Dr. Jacqueline K. Barton is the John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor, Emerita in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the [California Institute of Technology](https://www.its.caltech.edu/~jkbgrp/BartonBiography.htm). She is a native New Yorker. Barton was awarded the A.B. *summa cum laude* at Barnard College in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Columbia University in 1978 in the laboratory of S. J. Lippard. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Laboratories and Yale University with R. G. Shulman, she became an assistant professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. In 1983, she returned to Columbia University, becoming an associate professor of chemistry and biological sciences in 1985 and professor in 1986. In the fall of 1989, she joined the faculty at Caltech. From 1997 to 2016 she held the Arthur and Marion Hanisch Memorial Professorship. From 2009 to 2019 she served as the Norman Davidson Leadership Chair. Professor Barton has pioneered the application of transition metal complexes to probe recognition and reactions of double helical DNA. She has designed chiral metal complexes that recognize nucleic acid sites with specificities rivaling DNA-binding proteins. These synthetic transition metal complexes have been useful in elucidating fundamental chemical principles that govern the recognition of nucleic acids, in developing luminescent and photochemical reagents as new diagnostic tools, and in laying a foundation for the design of novel chemotherapeutics. Barton has also carried out seminal studies to elucidate electron transfer chemistry mediated by the DNA double helix. She first showed that oxidative damage to DNA can arise from a distance through charge migration through the DNA duplex. She furthermore established that DNA charge transport chemistry is exquisitely sensitive to intervening perturbations in the DNA base stack, as with single base mismatches or lesions. This chemistry has since been applied in the development of DNA-based electrochemical sensors and explored in the context of long range signaling within the cell. She has focused on the role of DNA charge transport chemistry in DNA repair. Through this research, Barton has trained more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral students, with about half in academic positions. The Frank H. Westheimer Prize Lecture was established in 2002 by the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in recognition of Professor Westheimer’s major contributions to organic chemistry. Widely published, Professor Westheimer’s research centered on the derivation (with J.G. Kirkwood) of equations for the calculation of electrostatic effects in organic chemistry, the invention (with J.E. Mayer) of molecular mechanics, the determination of mechanisms of chromic acid oxidations, the determination of the mechanisms of metal ion catalyzed and enzymic decarboxylation of β-ketoacids, the demonstration (with B. Vennesland) of the direct and stereospecifc transfer of hydrogen in the biochemical oxidation-reduction reactions that require NAD as coenzyme, a demonstration of the need for pseudorotation in the hydrolysis of phosphate esters, and the invention of photoaffinity labeling. ![Professor Jacqueline K. Barton holds up the Westheimer Prize Medal she was awarded.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/chemistry/files/westheimer-barton_2.jpg) ![Jacqueline Barton stands behind a podium delivering her prize lecture.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/chemistry/files/barton_1_img_1875.jpg) ![Jacqueline Barton stands behind a podium delivering her prize lecture.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/chemistry/files/barton_2_img_1866.jpg) ![Jacqueline Barton stands behind a podium delivering her prize lecture.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/chemistry/files/barton_3_img_1866.jpg) See also:- [ Prizes & Awards ](/news-type/prizes-awards) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)