Roderick MacKinnon received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and operation of ion channels. He is the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at Rockefeller University and studies the principles of electricity production in living cells through analysis of ion channel structure and function. He received an MD from Tufts University School of Medicine, completed internal medicine residency at the Beth Israel Hospital Boston. Following postdoctoral studies with Christopher Miller at Brandeis University he joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School from 1989 to 1995 before moving to Rockefeller University.