Arthur Kornberg | |
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Born | New York City, U.S. | March 3, 1918
Died | October 26, 2007 Palo Alto, California, U.S. | (aged 89)
Education | City College of New York University of Rochester |
Spouse(s) | Sylvy Ruth Levy (1943–1986; her death; 3 children) Charlene Walsh Levering (1988–1995; her death) Carolyn Frey Dixon (1998–2007; his death)[1] |
Children | 3 sons with his first wife: Roger David Kornberg, Thomas B. Kornberg, Kenneth Andrew Kornberg |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Molecular biology |
Institutions | National Institutes of Health Washington University in St. Louis Stanford University |
Doctoral students | Randy Schekman James Spudich Tania A. Baker |
Arthur Kornberg (March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for the discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid" together with Spanish biochemist and physician Severo Ochoa of New York University. He was also awarded the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 1951, an L.H.D. degree from Yeshiva University in 1962, and the National Medal of Science in 1979. In 1991, Kornberg received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement[2] and the Gairdner Foundation Award in 1995.
Kornberg's primary research interests were in biochemistry, especially enzyme chemistry, deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis (DNA replication) and studying the nucleic acids which control heredity in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.[3][4]