Howard Berg's Random Walk through Biology

Abstract

This minireview presents the career of biophysicist Howard Berg from his first interest in bacterial chemotaxis and motility through the present. After a summary of some of his early work, a series of reminiscences of students, postdocs, colleagues, and family members is presented. In sum, these recollections capture the effect that Howard's scientific life has had on the field of bacterial chemotaxis and motility and on the careers and lives of those who have interacted with him.

Keywords: Howard Berg; bacterial chemotaxis; bacterial motility.

FIG 1

Howard Berg as he likes to see himself.

FIG 2

(A) Howard casts a critical eye on a replica of the van Leeuwenhoek microscope. “Running and tumbling, little motor spins around. Howard sees them swim!” (Ariane Briegel wrote the haiku and provided the photo, which was taken by Eliza Wolfson [reproduced with permission].) (B) Howard with a slightly more complicated microscope. (Photo courtesy of Linda Turner, reproduced with permission.)

FIG 3

Mike and Lily’s wedding. (A) Howard at bat in the prenuptial bride versus groom softball game. This game was the inspiration for the Random Walks, the City League softball team that Mike organized many years later in College Station, TX. (B) Steve Block breaks out champagne after regaling the wedding crowd with his banjo. (C) Mary and Elena Berg. (D) Howard and Elena take in the exchange of vows.

FIG 4

Group photo from the 1990 Regensburg Conference on Signal Transduction. How many of the luminaries can you recognize after 30 years? (Hint: the late and dearly missed Bob Macnab is the one who looks like he is wearing a COVID-19 mask.)