Paul Adams

leader mx cryo-em computational pi wwpdb

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / ALS

Info

Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences at LBNL, overseeing the Biological Systems & Engineering, Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology, and Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Divisions, as well as the DOE Joint Genome Institute. Senior Scientist and Director of the MBIB Division since 2015. Vice President for Technology and Director of Structural Biology for the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) since 2007. Leads the PHENIX software consortium for automated solution of macromolecular structures using crystallographic and cryo-EM methods. Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley (a common appointment for LBNL scientists) since 2007.

wwPDB role

Advisory Committee member, RCSB PDB representative. Bridges the US archive side of the wwPDB with the PHENIX software community and the Berkeley structural biology infrastructure.

Affiliations

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — Associate Lab Director for Biosciences; Director, MBIB Division (2015-)
• Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) — VP for Technology, Director of Structural Biology (2007-)
• UC Berkeley — Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering (2007-)
• DOE Joint Genome Institute — oversight via Associate Lab Director role

Training

• PhD in Biochemistry / Structural Biology, University of Edinburgh (interest in protein simulation and parallel computing)
• Postdoctoral fellow, Yale University (central developer of the CNS - Crystallography and NMR System - software)

Career milestones

• Joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1999
• Promoted to Senior Scientist in 2005
• Head, Berkeley Center for Structural Biology at the Advanced Light Source
• Director, MBIB Division (2015-)
• Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences (2023-)

Committees & service

• wwPDB Advisory Committee — RCSB PDB representative

Key Relationships

• Leads the PHENIX multi-institutional development consortium with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Duke University, and University of Cambridge
• Co-located at LBNL with James Holton (ALS beamline 8.3.1 director) and Aaron Brewster (DIALS)
• James Holton is a DiffUSE team member and beamline collaborator

Sources

• LBNL Biosciences profile: https://biosciences.lbl.gov/profiles/paul-d-adams/
• LBNL news (Associate Director appointment 2023): https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/02/01/paul-adams-biosciences-associate-director/
• Paul Adams CV (2014, older but authoritative): https://www.jbei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Paul-Adams-CV.pdf
• wwPDB 2025 Advisory Committee report: https://cdn.rcsb.org/wwpdb/docs/about/advisory/wwpdbac2025-report.pdf