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<div style="direction: ltr;">Dear Colleagues, </div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;">It is with great sadness that I am relaying that Geoff Howlett passed Saturday afternoon. He was a giant in the field of AUC. Among many other contributions, he was instrumental for the birth of SEDFIT almost 30 years ago. Below
is a bio, assembled by Danny Hatters. </div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;">Peter Schuck </div>
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<span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Geoff</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Howlett</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
a member of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department from 1978 until his retirement in 2013, died on </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">19 </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">August </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">2023</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">During
his career, he made major contributions to </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">physical biochemistry, particularly </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the understanding
of how proteins fold and interact. </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">He completed </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">h</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">is </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bachelor
of Science (</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Honours</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">)</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">in
Biochemistry </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">in 1969</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">H</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">is
PhD </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">on sedimentation equilibrium of </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">lysozyme </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">under
the supervision of </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Laurie</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Nichol and </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Sawyer</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was
awarded </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">at the University of Melbourne </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">in 1972</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></p>
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<span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Geoff led efforts within Australia on using analytical ultracentrifugation </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">to analyze interacting
macrom</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">olecu</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">les</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> He
became interested in </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">this approach </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">during his PhD </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">using
the “Model E”</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> analytical ultracentrifuge</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, which was developed </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">after
the Second World War and was based on jet engine design and capable of very high rotational speeds (up to 60000</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">rpm). </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">He </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">further
advanced his</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> knowledge of this technology</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">during </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">his
postdoctoral </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">resea</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">r</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ch </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">with
Howard Shachman</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> at the University of Califo</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">rn</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ia
Berkeley from 1973-76</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, where he </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">stud</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ied</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> changes
in the structure of the 12</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">-subunit</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> enzyme, aspartate transcarbamylase</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></p>
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<span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">He returned to Australia in 1976 for a research fellowship at La Trobe University, and in 1979, he was appointed lecturer back at the University of Melbourne in the Department of
Biochemistry. I</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">n the early 1990s</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">a
new, more compact, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">easier-to-use</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">analytical
ultracentrifuge (the XL-A) was developed, and </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Biochemistry </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Department </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">acquired
one of the first ones in Australia. W</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ith widespread interest in </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">this </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">new
model,</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">he developed many collaborations with colleagues keen to exploit this equipment
to analyze </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the molecular masses and heterogeneity of proteins and protein complexes</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">n
the mid to late 90s, he studied </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">interaction </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">of </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">lipoproteins, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
blood lipid-protein complexes. He us</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ed</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">biophysical approaches to understand how the protein
components bound to the lipids and </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">to define </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the stoichiometry of the</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">se</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> components. </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the late 90s and early 2000s, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">he</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">examined </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">how
these protein components formed amyloids</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">aggregates of misfolded fibrillar structure</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
Geoff</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">pioneered studies</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> using
the analytical ultracentrifuge to understand the heterogeneity of fibril sizes and their formation kinetics.</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This research on amyloids sustained his career until his retirement
in 2013.</span></p>
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<span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over his career, Geoff undertook many sabbatical visits to outstanding scholars in the UK and the US. This </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">reflected </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">his
international perspective to research – building networks with leading thinkers in the field. Geoff </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">attended </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">the </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">second </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lorne
Protein Conference in 197</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">7</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and became enamored with the scope and quality of the meeting.
He then attended 35 annual meetings in a row and played key roles on the organizing committee between 1980 and 2010. His legacy is in the people he trained</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and the ethos </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">of </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">his
trainees</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. He inspired bright thinkers in his laboratory</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. M</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">any
of </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">his former PhD students</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> or postdocs</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">have
gone on to their own distinguished careers, including Cait MacPhee, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mike Griffin, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Matt
Perugini, Ben Atcliffe, Danny Hatters</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">,</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cameron
Stewart, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and Katrina Binger</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></p>
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<span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">He is survived by his wife, Barb</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">ara</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
and daughters, </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lisa </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Melanie,
as well as four grandchildren</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 21.6px; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></p>
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