Francisco Bezanilla is a Chilean-American scientist and professor at theUniversity of Chicago. He is a past president of theBiophysical Society and a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.
Raised inSantiago, Bezanilla took an early interest in science. When Chile hosted the1962 World Cup, it was uncommon for people to own televisions, so Bezanilla and a friend began building their own television to watch the tournament. While the rudimentary TV was not completed in time for the World Cup, Bezanilla later built a better TV with commercial parts from Argentina, and Bezanilla's family used it for many years.[1]
Bezanilla earned an undergraduate biology degree as well as master's and Ph.D. degrees in biophysics, all from thePontifical Catholic University of Chile.[2] Initially intending to earn a medical degree, Bezanilla shifted his focus to research and the Ph.D. program, finding that he liked howneurophysiology combined two of his interests, electronics and biology.[3] He conducted research on the nerve cells ofHumboldt squid at theMontemar Institute of Marine Biology.[4]
Leaving Chile for the United States in 1969, Bezanilla completed a postdoctoral fellowship with theNational Institutes of Health. While in the US, Bezanilla heard that the Humboldt squid was no longer available in Chilean waters. Also noting the political changes in Chile underAugusto Pinochet, he decided to stay in the US. Working on gating current experiments, he became a frequent collaborator withClay Armstrong, who he had met at Montemar.[3] In experiments atWoods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Bezanilla and Armstrong built their ownsignal averaging device and became the first to measure the tiny gating currents insodium channels.[3]
In 1977, Bezanilla became a neuroscience professor at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and later joined theUniversity of Chicago, becoming the Lillian Eichelberger Cannon Professor in the Department of Pediatrics.[2] Bezanilla was elected a member of theNational Academy of Sciences in 2006.[5] He was the 2013-2014 president of theBiophysical Society.[6] Some of his recent work includes the application of light pulses to gold nanoparticles to activate neurons.[7]
He is a member of the Editorial Board forPNAS.[8]
Bezanilla's daughter Magdalena is a biologist and university professor.[9]
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