Science Chats Forum

Hi, I'm writing a story in which one of the characters is a mathematical physicist working on protein structure prediction algorithms. I'm not a scientist; I've just had a few math and physics courses in college (I don't want to be like one of those fantasy/SF writers Vonnegut once talked about: the kind that don't know jack about science) My questions are as follows:

(1) Given that I need this guy to have a doctorate in physics with a heavy emphasis on mathematical and computation physics of a sort, how much background in biology would he have to have? (By the way, this character's a little phobic about working too closely with actual microbes. That's why as an undergrad he majored in math and physics instead of biology.)

(2) What branche(s) of math and physics would he have had to be familiar with for working on ab initio protein structure prediction?

I've already gone through Wikipedia, some other sites, and a few textbooks. Unfortunately, anything past the bare basics of group theory is where I hit my current limit of understanding. Any help would be greatly appreciated.