Physics Professor Daniel Aalberts to Present Sigma Xi Lecture at Williams College 

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, executive assistant; tele: 413-597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 9, 2021—Daniel Aalberts, Kennedy P. Richardson ’71 Professor of Physics at Williams College, will present the Sigma Xi Lecture, titled “Shooting the messenger RNA ==>— mRNA vaccine technology,” which will present an accessible look at the science of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and of messages in translation.

The talk will be held on Friday, April 16, at 3:15 p.m. in the North Science Building Auditorium. In-person seating is limited to Williams faculty, staff, and students, but the public may attend via Zoom. To receive the Zoom link, guests must sign up using the following form: tinyurl.com/SigmaXi2021

Aalberts is a computational biophysicist whose latest grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigated the mRNA sequence features that influence protein production. At Williams he teaches computational biology and throughout the college’s physics curriculum. He and his students have invented RNA folding algorithms, formulated polymer theories of RNA loops, and modeled the photochemistry of vision. 

Aalberts earned his S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in statistical physics from M.I.T.

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