Abstract
We present here the life and the work of Paul A. Castelfranco (1921–2021), a very special person who was not only a top chemist of chlorophyll biosynthesis, but also made major contributions on fatty acid oxidation, acetate metabolism and cellular organization. He led an extraordinary and exemplary life as a human being. We present here both his personal life as well as his scientific life, which is followed by reminiscences by William Breidenbach, Kevin Smith, Alan Stemler, Ann Castelfranco, and John Castelfranco. As the subtitle of this Tribute implies, till the end Paul was a scientist par excellence, an intellectual with unlimited curiosity, a humanist, and a man of enduring religious faith. We all miss him dearly.
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Source: P. Castelfranco (2007)
Source: Castelfranco Family Archives
Source: Castelfranco Family Archives
Source: Castelfranco Family Archive
Source: Castelfranco Family Archive
Source: Stemler’s Archive
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Notes
Web sites related to Paul Castelfranco are:
https://www.davisenterprise.com/obits/paul-a-castelfranco/
https://religions.ucdavis.edu/paul-and-marie-castelfranco-chair-0
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Paul-A-Castelfranco-2900551
https://religions.sf.ucdavis.edu/paul-and-marie-castelfranco-lecture-archive
https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/Paul+Castelfranco/0_8ccxalcb
References
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Acknowledgements
We thank the staff and faculty of the Department of Plant Biology of the University of California, Davis, CA, for their cooperation in providing information for this Tribute and Mathias Ross for reading and editing an early version of the manuscript. We also thank Rajni Govindjee for reading the final version of this manuscript before its publication.
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AS initiated the writing of this manuscript and requested GG to coordinate and invite others to participate. GG prepared a basic draft and approached AMC to join. This was followed by the addition of detailed Reminiscences by RWB, AMC, JC, KMS and AS. Figure 1 is prepared from P. Castelfranco (2007), Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 were provided by AMC, Fig. 6 by KMS, and Fig. 7 by AS. All the authors finalized and approved the entire paper. In view of the above, authorship was decided to be in alphabetical order,
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“Chlorophyll is the pigment that negotiates the cosmic gap between the light of the sun and life on Earth.”—Paul Castelfranco.
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Breidenbach, R.W., Castelfranco, A.M., Castelfranco, J. et al. Paul A. Castelfranco (1921–2021): a scientist par excellence, a man of lasting faith, and ever a humanist. Photosynth Res 157, 147–157 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-023-01017-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-023-01017-x