Dr. Touster served as the first chairman of Department of Molecular Biology at Vanderbilt. He was born in New York, New York in 1921. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of the City of New York in 1941, his masters degree from Oberlin College in 1942, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1947. Before coming to the department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt in 1947, Dr. Touster was a chemist at Atlas Powder Company and later a research biochemist at Abbott Laboratories. Active in many professional organizations, Dr. Touster is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Theobald Smith Award in the Medical Sciences in 1956, Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1957, and the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award in 1982. His research interests include the processing of glycoproteins, including enzymes of lysosomes and Golgi membranes, and his research has been published in a number of books and journals. In 1992 Dr. Touster stepped down from the chairmanship but continues a as Professor Emeritus of both Bioemistry and Molecular Biology.