Donald Voet, an emeritus associate professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, died on April 11. He was 84.

Dr. Voet earned his BS in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1960 and his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University under William N. Lipscomb, Jr. in 1967. Two years later, he finished his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Alexander Rich. Also in 1969, he joined Penn’s chemistry department as an assistant professor, and soon after his arrival, he became involved in Penn’s governance, serving on the University Council. In 1974 he was promoted to associate professor, a role he occupied for 35 years. While at Penn, Dr. Voet and his laboratory researched crystallography, using X-rays to understand structure-function relationships in proteins, and received multiple rounds of funding from the University Research Foundation (URF) to support this work.

Dr. Voet was a visiting scholar at Oxford University, the University of California San Diego, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and was on the board of editors of the journal Biochemical and Molecular Biology. In 1999, Dr. Voet published the first edition of Fundamentals of Biochemistry, cowritten with his wife, Judith Voet, and Charlotte Pratt. The book quickly became a classic of its genre and has since been reprinted four times. In 2005, Dr. Voet chaired Penn’s Faculty Senate Committee on Committees. He retired and took emeritus status in 2009. In his free time, Dr. Voet enjoyed scuba diving, swimming, hiking, and skiing. He traveled to all seven continents, summited Mount Ranier and Mount Whitney, and hiked the Everest Base Camp trail and numerous trails in the Rockies, White Mountains and Sierras.

Dr. Voet is survived by his children, Wendy and Doug; his wife, Judith (Judy); his son in law, Lex; his daughter in law, Sue; his grandchildren, Maya, Lizzie, Leo and Cora; his brother, Martin; his sisters, Loesje and Marion; and sisters and brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends.