Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry 2009

Summary

In last posts, I introduced the winner of Nobel Prize in chemistry. Here I will introduce winners in 2009. The main content is about the life, career of these winners. I hope all of you may be interested in that.

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There are also three persons for this award---Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E.Yonath.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in a family of scientists in 1952, his father was head of the department of biochemistry, and then he moved to University of Wisconsin-Madison. Then the family moved to Vadodara at the age of three. His Pre-Science was at the Mahataja Sayajirao University of Barida. And then he did his undergraduate studies at the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship. In 1971, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. However, he once failed to get admitted to any of the Indian Institutes of Technology or the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Then he moved to USA, and he got his PhD degree in physics in 1976. Then he spent two years in studying biology. Finally in 2009, he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Thomas A. Steitz

As a biochemist, Steitz was born in Milwaukee in 1940. In his early age, he graduated with studying chemistry from Lawrence University in 1962. And then from Harvard University, he obtained his PhD IN biochemistry and molecular biology in 1966. He made a lot of contribution to determining the atomic structure of carbxyoeotidase A and aspartate carbamoyltransferase. During 1967-1970, he did postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow. He also was awarded the Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2011, as well as the Nobel Prize in 2009.

Ada E.Yonath

Ada E.Yonath was born in 1939. She is an Israeli crystallographer, and was known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. In her early age, they settled in Jersalem and ran a grocery. Instead of their poverty, her parents sent her to school in the upscale Beit HaKerem neighborhood to make sure that she can get the best education. And then she was accepted into Tichon Hadash high school although her mother could not pay the tuition. In 1962, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemistry. Following her bachelor degree, she got her PhD from Weizmanm Institute of Science for X-ray crystallographic studies. Finally, she received the Nobel Prize with two scientists we mentioned above.

This is brief introduction to the three winners in chemistry. They deserved this award for working hard in this field.

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