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David Allan Butterfield (born January 14, 1946) is an American biological chemist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Butterfield was named among the world's leading Alzheimer's disease experts by Expertscape, an online base of biomedical expertise. He is a Fellow of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Early life and education

Butterfield was born on January 14, 1946 to father Francis Butterfield in Brownville, Maine. He attended Brownville Junction High School where he was elected president of the Future Teachers of America Club as a senior.

Butterfield graduated from the University of Maine in 1968 as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and the American Chemical Society. Following this, he enrolled at Duke University for his PhD and became an National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience from Duke University School of Medicine. Upon graduating, Butterfield and his wife Maria left for Rhodesia on a teaching assignment. He taught all of the secondary school mathematics classes in Murewa while his wife Marcia taught six classes of English and was in charge of the library. Upon returning from their mission, Butterfield was hospitalized for hepatitis.

Career

Butterfield accepted a faculty position at the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1975. He continued his research on dystrophy from Duke as an assistant professor of chemistry. In his laboratory, his research on muscular dystrophy indicated to him that the disease is one that affects all the cells of the body. In 1986, Butterfield was named director of the University of Kentucky Research Center for Membrane Sciences. His research and teaching was recognized by the White House in 1998 with the Presidential Award for Science Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

At the turn of the 21st century, Butterfield found evidence suggesting that vitamin E could help prevent Alzheimer's disease. His research, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), came to this conclusion by comparing amyloid beta peptide in an animal model to the same compound in humans. Later, he was appointed chair of the Neural Oxidative Metabolism and Death Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) of the NIH. In 2012, Butterfield was named a UK Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Biological Chemistry and was elected a Fellow of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine. As a result of his research into Alzheimer's disease, Butterfield was also the recipient of the society's Mentoring Excellence Award and 2013 Discovery Award.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Butterfield was named among the world's leading Alzheimer's disease experts by Expertscape, an online base of biomedical expertise. He is among the top 0.007% of scholars worldwide based on authorship of Alzheimer's-related publications indexed in the PubMed database and ranked tenth out of nearly 150,000 scholars worldwide and sixth in the United States.

Personal life

Butterfield met his wife Maria while attending the University of Maine on November 6, 1965. They married upon graduating in 1968 and have one daughter together. Prior to her retirement, Maria worked as a nurse.

References

1. "D. ALLAN BUTTERFIELD CV" (PDF). pa.as.uky.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
2. ^ "MRS DAVID ALLAN BUTTERFIELD". Bangor, Maine: The Bangor Daily News. June 12, 1968. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
3. "New President". The Bangor Daily News. April 1, 1964. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
4. "D. Allan Butterfield". chem.as.uky.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
5. "Two U-M Graduates Serve As Teachers in Rhodesia". The Bangor Daily News. April 1, 1969. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
6. "Missionaries Unable To Be At Orono Church". The Bangor Daily News. July 9, 1971. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
7. ^ Feldman, Jacinta (September 22, 1998). "White House honors UK chemist". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
8. Runyon, Keith (March 14, 1976). "New theory on muscular dystrophy is studied". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
9. Mead, Andy (October 13, 1986). "Kentucky professors address the mysteries of membranes". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
10. Elliott, Allison (November 4, 2004). "Researcher Uncovers Clues to Alzheimer's". uky.edu. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
11. "Chemistry Professor Allan Butterfield Awarded NIH Chair". chem.as.uky.edu. March 29, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
12. "Allan Butterfield: UK Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Biological Chemistry". as.uky.ed. January 24, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
13. Springs, Guy (November 20, 2012). "Allan Butterfield Named Prestigious SFRBM Fellow". chem.as.uky.edu. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
14. Fawns, Will (October 16, 2014). "Butterfield to Receive Mentoring Excellence Award from Major National Society". chem.as.uky.edu. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
15. Perry, Allison (July 22, 2013). "UK Researcher Allan Butterfield Earns 2013 Discovery Award". chem.as.uky.edu. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
16. Chapin, Elizabeth (October 9, 2020). "Butterfield Recognized as a Leading Alzheimer's Expert". uknow.uky.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
17. Grimes, Le Datta (January 21, 1999). "Working for the 'hidden' patients". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved April 20, 2021 – via newspapers.com.

• Living people
• 1946 births
• Scientists from Maine
• 20th-century American chemists
• 21st-century American chemists
• University of Maine alumni
• Duke University alumni
• University of Kentucky faculty
• People from Piscataquis County, Maine