Eleanor (Ellie) Brown is a native of East Liverpool, Ohio, and currently lives with her husband in Oreland, PA.  She holds a BA in mathematics and chemistry from Ohio Wesleyan University, and a Ph.D. from Drexel University in Chemistry with an emphasis on the application of physical chemistry to biological problems. Her research career has been with ERRC, ARS, USDA.  Since 1971, she has studied protein structure in a variety of agriculturally important systems (dairy, poultry, and leather) to achieve knowledge of the relationships between structure and biological or technological function.  She has studied the effects of chemical and enzymatic modifications as well as interactions with environmental variables and other biomolecules on protein structure-function relationships in basic and applied contexts.  She is author or coauthor of 125 publications and 4 patents and has presented 45 papers at scientific meetings.

Since 1990, she has been Lead Scientist for projects designed to reduce the environmental impact of leather production and develop a basis for understanding the mechanisms of tanning. Studies of the relationship between protein (collagen) structure and function, particularly in a processing system, form the core of her research.  Dr. Brown has established a successful record of defining research problems on a molecular basis and developing innovative approaches to their solution.  Early in her research career, she identified the amino acid residues that comprise the metal binding site of the milk protein, lactoferrin.  She has demonstrated accomplishments in the areas of chemical modification of amino acid side chains, spectrophotometric estimation of protein conformation, molecular modeling of noncrystalline proteins.  She pioneered the combined use of algorithms to predict protein structure with physical chemical data to develop preliminary three-dimensional structures for agriculturally important proteins, including caseins, apolipoproteins, and collagen.  The models, after refinement via molecular dynamics and energy minimization have proved to be consistent with more recently obtained data and have provided the basis for modeling of these proteins by other groups around the world.  In conjunction with the molecular models, she has developed a soluble model tanning system that allows one to observe by a variety of spectroscopic techniques the effects on collagen structure of tanning processes.  As Lead Scientist, she has developed collaborations with researchers in the USA and worldwide for the study of collagen structure and function in tanning and has participated fully in collaborations for the development of value added products from tannery waste.  Academic scientists from the USA, UK, China and Spain have obtained their own funding to support their research in her laboratory on the biochemical fundamentals of tanning.

She has been a member of the American Leather Chemists Association since 1991, serving as a member and chair of the Uses of Collagen and Its Coproducts Committee, a member of the Editorial Board of JALCA and a member of Council (2005-2008). She received the prize paper award in 1993 and the Alsop award in 1996. Her organizational activities in addition to the ALCA include membership in the Protein Society, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Chemical Society where she is a member of the Women Chemists Committee and the Association for Women in Science where she was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter.