Curriculum Vitae

Marius Schmidt


Contact

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex (KIRC)
Physics Department, Room 3087
3135 N. Maryland Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211, U.S.A.

Phone: 414-229-4338
Lab: 414-229-4441
Fax: 414-229-5589
Email: smarius@uwm.edu

Education

  • 2008 Habilitation in the French system: physical, theoretical and analytical chemistry (qualification number: 08131186255)
  • 2004 Habilitation in experimental physics, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • 1998-2001 Post-Doc at the University of Chicago, USA (Prof. K. Moffat)
  • 1996 Dr. rer. Nat in Biophysics, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany (Prof. F. Parak)
  • 1990 Dipl. Biol., Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Germany (Prof. G. Wegener)
Positions
  • from 08/2014: Full Professor for Physics/Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
  • 2011-2014: Associate Professor for Physics/Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
  • since 2009: Adjunct Professor (0%) for Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
  • 2007 – 2011: Assistant Professor (tenure track) for Physics/Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
  • 2004-2007 Privatdozent and Research Scientist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • 2001-2004 Habilitand and Research Scientist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • 1998-2001 Research Associate at the University of Chicago, USA
  • 1996-1998 Research Scientist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • 1994-1996 Research Associate at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • 1990-1994 Teaching and Research Assistant at the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Germany

Awards

  • 2017 UW-Milwaukee Research Foundation Senior Faculty Award
  • member of an NSF funded STC called “Biology with XFELs”
  • 2011 UW-Milwaukee Graduate School Research Award
  • 2010 NSF CAREER Award
  • 2001 DGfB Best Poster Award
  • 1997 Needle for the best dissertation in the physics department of the TU-Muenchen

Selected Achievements

  • Ab-initio structure determination of a full-length bacteriophytochrome with single particle cryo-EM (2024, first at UW-Milwaukee). First identification of a Pr/Pfr heterodimer as a putative intermediate in the bacteriophytochrome photocycle.
  • First direct, time-resolved observation of the initial phase of substrate and inhibitor binding to enzyme crystals using the mix-and-inject technique; the XFEL as an ally in the fight against deadly diseases (2024).
  • Algorithm development: A kinetics informed neural network (KINN) as a flavor of a physics informed neural network (PINN) that can be applied to time-resolved X-ray data (2024).
  • First time-resolved crystallographic observation of an Z to E isomerization in a biliprotein, specifically in phytochromes. Experiments were conducted at the Japanese XFEL SACLA (2021).
  • First time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallographic experiment at the European XFEL (2019).
  • The structural basis of cephalosporin inactivation by beta-lactamase in real time, using a true mix-and-inject experiment, where mixing and diffusion is much faster than the catalytic cycle (2018).
  • First myxobacterial phytochrome structures (2018).
  • First structural characterization of a trans to cis isomerization on the femtosecond time-scale by time-resolved X-ray crystallography with near atomic resolution (2016).
  • First structural characterization of a transition through a conical intersection on the femtosecond time-scale by time-resolved X-ray crystallography (2016).
  • First successful time-resolved crystallographic experiment with near atomic resolution at any XFEL worldwide (published in Science, 2014).
  • Proposal to use mixing and diffusion (mix-and-inject methods) to characterize non-cyclic, enzymatically catalyzed reactions by time-resolved X-ray crystallography (2013).
  • The 5th dimension in X-ray crystallography: First temperature dependent molecular movies on a biomolecular reaction. This work utilized the BioCARS beamline at Argonne National Laboratory, and a data analysis method based on the singular value decomposition (2013).
  • First structural characterization of a Z- to E-isomerization in a biliprotein (phycobiliprotein) with near atomic resolution (2007).
  • Algorithm development: the Singular Value Decomposition for time-resolved crystallography. First mixture free electron density maps for protein reaction intermediates (2003).
  • The first X-ray structure of a cambialistic superoxide dismutase (1996).