Mike Matzinger
Peter Agre, born January 30, 1949, in Northfield, Minnesota, is a Nobel Prize–winning physician, molecular biologist, and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at both the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is recognized worldwide for his 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded jointly with Roderick MacKinnon for their discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes. Agre’s groundbreaking work identified aquaporins — water-channel proteins that move water through cell membranes — a finding that has transformed our understanding of physiology and disease.
Agre’s life of discovery began in Scouting. As a member of Troop 185 in Minneapolis, the very first merit badge he earned was in chemistry — a subject he learned from his father, a college chemistry professor who also guided countless Scouts through the badge requirements. Encouraged by his family and the values of Scouting, Agre earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1966, joining his two brothers in that achievement. His time in Scouting was filled with high adventure — canoeing the Canadian wilderness from the Scouting America base in Ely, Minnesota, learning resilience on long treks, and gaining the curiosity and preparedness that would later define his scientific career.
Years later, Agre would return to Scouting when his son, Clarke, joined Baltimore Troop 35 and his youngest daughter, Carly, joined Venturing Crew 35. As an assistant Scoutmaster, he led merit badge instruction, served as summer camp doctor, and organized high adventure trips to Philmont Scout Ranch, Florida Sea Base, and beyond. Even as he prepared to travel to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize, Agre was planning a 350-mile canoe trip from Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay.
In his laboratory, Agre’s sense of exploration mirrored the spirit of Scouting. In 1988, while studying blood proteins, he stumbled upon a membrane protein that turned out to be the water channel itself. Naming it “aquaporin,” he revealed a fundamental mechanism behind processes as ordinary as producing tears and saliva and as critical as regulating brain swelling or glaucoma. Today, aquaporin research spans medicine, agriculture, and environmental science.
Agre has often drawn parallels between the adventures of the wilderness and the frontiers of science. “I identify more with Huckleberry Finn than with Albert Einstein,” he says. “You don’t know what’s around the bend.” That outlook has carried him through a career that also includes leadership as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, active roles in science diplomacy, and decades of teaching and mentoring.
Beyond the Nobel Prize, Agre has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) and holds 19 honorary doctorates from institutions around the world. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoys arctic canoeing and cross-country skiing — completing Sweden’s 60-mile Vasaloppet race five times.
From his earliest days tying knots and earning merit badges to his groundbreaking research that has saved and improved lives worldwide, Peter Agre’s journey shows how Scouting can foster a spirit of curiosity, resilience, and service that lasts a lifetime.