Rate My Professor Laura Finzi

Laura Finzi is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University, where she holds the inaugural Dr. Waenard L. Miller, Jr. ’69 and Sheila M. Miller Endowed Chair in Medical Biophysics, a position she assumed in July 2024, along with an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. She earned a B.S. in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico in 1990. Her postdoctoral training in biophysics included fellowships at the University of New Mexico (1990), the University of Oregon (1992), and Brandeis University (1993). Prior to Clemson, Finzi served as full professor in the Physics Department at Emory University from 2012 to June 2024 and associate professor from 2005 to 2012. She directed graduate studies in physics at Emory from 2008 to 2011 and held faculty roles in biomedical engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, cell and developmental biology graduate programs, the Winship Cancer Institute, and the Emory Computational and Life Science Initiative.

A Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2023, Finzi pioneered single-molecule techniques, including magnetic tweezers for measuring DNA elasticity (Smith, Finzi, Bustamante, Science, 1992, cited approximately 2500 times and recognized as a landmark in the National Academies decadal report on biological physics). Her research specializes in DNA mechanics, supercoiling, topology, and protein interactions in transcriptional regulation, employing tethered particle microscopy, magnetic and optical tweezers, and atomic force microscopy. Notable recent publications include “Force and the α-C-terminal domains bias RNA polymerase recycling” (Qian et al., Nature Communications, 2024) and “Reciprocating RNA Polymerase batters through roadblocks” (Qian et al., Nature Communications, 2024). Finzi has delivered keynote addresses at conferences such as the International School of Physics Enrico Fermi (2022) and Nanoscopy 2.0 (2021), chaired symposia at Biophysical Society meetings, and serves on the Editorial Board of Biophysical Reviews. Her work reveals molecular heterogeneities in gene expression essential for precision medicine.