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Gegor Mendel
Gregor Mendel was a scientist who worked with pea plants because they were easy to grow. He was the first person to figure out how inherited genes worked, and came up with the fundamental laws of inheritance. -
Friedrich Miescher
Friedrich Miescher is known to many as the father of DNA. He attended university to study tissue and natural chemistry. He worked with white blood cells to see how the functioned. He bases his research and findings off of Mendel. -
Carl Correns
Carl Correns went to the university of Munich and studied botany. He discovered a lot of things about life and heredity and proved that what Mendel had discovered was correct. Sadly most of his work was destroyed in the Berlin bombing. -
Hugo de Vries
Hugo de Vries worked with plants, which led to him discovering mutation when studying oenothera lamarckiana. He also agreed with Mendel’s discoveries. He later went on to publish a book on his own theories. -
Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg
Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg came from a long line of scientist, on of them (his grandfather) actually taught Mendel. He studied agriculture at the University of Vienna. He performed plant breeding experiments on peas. He to rediscovered Mendel’s laws of heredity. He later became a professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences, and was a major influence in agriculture and plant breeding. -
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan Kentucky university and studied natural sciences he also went to John Hopkins university and studied zoology and morphology. He is most known for his fruit fly experiment, where he bred 1 million fruit flies until he came across a white eyed fly and he bred that on with a regular red eyed one and found out that the F1 generation only had white eyes in 3 out of 12,00 fruit flies. He proved Mendel’s theory and won Nobel prize, Darwin medal, and the Copley medal. -
Hermann Muller
Hermann Muller was an American Geneticist who Attended Columbia University. He was also attracted to the emerging field of genetics. He showed X-Rays could induce mutations and won a Nobel prize in Physiological and genetic effects of radiation. -
Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock went to Cornell University to study plant genetics and cytology. She determined the mechanism for transposition in corn and proved that genes were physically located on chromosomes. She was usually ridiculed for her discoveries but in 1981 she won the Nobel prize for Physiology or medicine. -
George Beadle
George Beadle went to Cornell University and University of Nebraska. He studied corn genetics and Neurospora (a bread mold) and the ecology of grasses. He won the Won Nobel prize for Physiology or medicine (1958). He and Edward Tatum came of with the Central dogma of biology. -
Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg went to Columbia University (zoology) and Yale University. He later went on to study E. coli and bacterial conjugation. He won the Nobel prize in Physiology or medicine (1958) alongside Beadle and Tatum. He opened up a a field of microbiology. He helped work on DENDRAL an artificial intelligence program and advised NASA on the moon landing in 1969. -
Edward Tatum
Edward Tatum grew up in a science-oriented household. He went to the University of Wisconsin and studied Bacteria strains (milk). He went to the University of Utrecht for a short period of time. He almost didn't join Beadle because of one of his professors but he went because the money was better. Together they won the Nobel prize for Physiology or medicine (1958). After they split up and went their separate ways -
Oswald Avery
Oswald Avery is a Canadian scientist. He attended Colgate Academy and Colgate University. He is most known for his mice where he finds out that lethal bacteria could passed down to healthy bacteria. He used trial and error to figure out what was passing these bacteria down. He used enzymes to break down proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. When doing this, he finds out that the nucleic acids are responsible for passing down the bacteria. -
Evelyn Witkin
Evelyn Witkin was a native New Yorker and she went to New York University and Columbia University. She studied the cellular response to UV and DNA repair. Her discoveries led to the basic understanding of how bacteria adapts to their environment. She later incubated a radiation resistant mutant E.coli. -
Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff was inspired by Avery. He got his doctorates in chemistry at Yale University. He later developed Chargaff's Rules. Which were there must be a 1:1 ratio of pyrimidine and purine bases in DNA and, more specifically, that the amount of guanine is equal to cytosine, and the amount of adenine\is equal to thymine. This led to him discovering the double helix structure. He also published tons of scientific papers on nucleic acids using the chromatography technique. -
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin had Wanted to be a scientist ever since she was a teen. She won a scholarship to Cambridge where she studied chemistry. She studied the structure of coal which led to better gas mask for the british during world war ii. She created Photo 51 which took over 100 hours and to this day is still the most famous photo of DNA. he photo was later stolen by a fellow colleague without her knowing. Her discoveries revolutionized biology, medicine and agriculture. -
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase discovered bacteriophage which led to their blender experiment. They were trying figure out what truly caused lethal bacteria to transfer to healthy bacteria. In this they found out that it wasn’t bacteria that was being transferred but the DNA inside the bacteria. In doing this they essentially backed up Avery’s idea. -
James Watson and Francis Crick
James Watson and Francis Crick both went to Cambridge university. Together they discovered the Double Helix Structure. They wouldn’t have been able to this without sealing Rosalind Franklin photo. They are most widely known as the fathers of DNA. They Won the Nobel prize in Physiology. -
Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling was one of the greatest chemists of all time. He attended Oregon agriculture college, which is now oregon state university. He discovered how chemical bonds like covalent and ionic bonds worked, which he later went on to write a book about. He also won the Nobel Prize in chemistry and the Nobel Peace Prize. -
Seymour Benzer
Seymour Benzer Graduated high school at the age of only 15.He discovered that our traits, athletic abilities and thoughts can be traced back to our genes. He is known to some a DNA renaissance man. He made the the first transmisser during world war ii. His discoveries are still used today. He also won many awards for his discoveries in science. When he died he left behind his models and maps for the scientist who came after him, and if he hadn’t we would be a lot further behind in science today. -
Francis Crick
After Francis Crick discovered the structure of a DNA strain, he went on to study the brain. After doing this for awhile he went on to write many books. -
Paul Zamecnik
Paul Zamecnik attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. He got a job at Carlsberg Laboratory after he graduated. He went on to study amino acids. Which led to his discovery of tRNA, and that anti-sense could block the translation of viral messenger RNA. -
Mahlon Hoagland
Williams College and then transferred to Harvard -
Arthur Kornberg
Arthur Kornberg was an American biochemist. He went to the University of Rochester and New York University. He was most known for his mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid. Later on in his life he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. -
Franklin "Frank" Stahl
Franklin "Frank" Stahl went to Harvard University and the University of Rochester. He is most known for Growing E. Coli in nitrogen. He discovered and used the technique of density gradient. He also rediscovered and agreed with James Watson and Francis Crick and their theory about how DNA was replicated in a semi-conservative way. -
Matthew Meselson
Matthew Meselson was a chemist and a molecular biologist. He went to the University of Chicago. He studied the structure of a specific protein. While studying he came across Watson and Crick’s model of semi-conservative replication and proved it to be correct. At some point he actually worked with Linus Pauling. -
Sydney Brenner
Sydney Brenner was a south African biologist. He is famously known as a Revolutionary Biologist. He went to Cambridge and Oxford University. He studied the function and existence of messenger RNA. he later won Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine. -
Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Marshall Warren Nirenberg was a Jewish American biochemist and geneticist. He attended both the University of Florida and the University of Michigan. He studied diverse ecology, sugar transport in tumor cells, and Metabolic Enzymes. When doing this he discovered that the genetic code was universal. He won Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine. -
François Jacob
François Jacob was a french biologist. He also spent a little timefighting in the army. He won a Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine. He discovered what RNA is and how it works. He proved how the genetic information is converted during the formation of proteins. And finally, he mapped how genes are expressed or suppressed in a self-regulating process. -
Jacques Monod
Jacques Monod was the first to discover how genes were turned on and off along with François Jacob. He went to the university of Paris. He was a french biologist and biochemist. And he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology. -
Roy Britten
Roy Britten went to University of Virginia (studied physics), Princeton University, and Johns Hopkins University. He was an American molecular biologist and he studied Repetitive DNA. He worked on the Manhattan Project. He also had lot of hobbies like music, writing, painting and sailing. -
David Baltimore
David Baltimore studied biology and chemistry at Swarthmore College and MIT. He also went to Rockefeller University. He studied many different kinds of RNA viruses and used that to find and prove RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. -
Howard Temin
Howard Temin went to Swarthmore College where he majored in biology. He developed his provirus theory and proved it. When he was younger he spent many summers at a camp for biological research. He also became an American Cancer Society Professor of Viral Oncology and Cell Biology. And finally he won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. -
Stan Cohen
Stan Cohen went to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He originally wanted to to be a physicist, but decided he would be happier as a medical doctor. He also used to build and assemble telephones. Once he got more into the the basic science field he found how to transform bacteria. -
Herb Boyer
At first, Herb Boyer wanted to become a doctor but he decided that that’s not what he really want to do. He went to University of pennsylvania to become a biologist and chemist. He was really interested in E. Coli, and plasmids rings of extrachromosomal DNA. later in 1976 he founded Genetech. -
Richard (Rich) Roberts
Richard Roberts was interested in chemistry at an early age. In fact, his dad helped him build a chemistry lab in their basement when he was younger. He went to Sheffield University where he studied organic chemistry which then later changed to molecular biology. In the 70’s and the early 80’s 75/100 known enzymes were isolated in Roberts' lab. He developed a computer programs that maps and analyzes DNA restriction enzyme fragments. And finally he won a Nobel prize for Physiology or medicine. -
Phillip (Phil) Sharp
Phillip (Phil) Sharp enjoyed math and science and math at school. He went to Union College where he studied chemistry and math. He later worked with bacterial plasmids and simple viruses like SV40 and adenovirus. He mapped the adenovirus genome. He won a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He founded Biogen in 1978 with a group of scientists. -
Frederick Sanger
Frederick Sanger went to Cambridge University. He also figured out ways to order the amino acids. And he was the first person to obtain a protein sequence. Later in life he won 2 Nobel Prizes for Chemistry. -
Roger Kornberg
Both of Roger Kornberg’s parents were well respected scientists, which is where his interest of science came from. He went to Harvard and Stanford where he studied
figured out the importance of histones chemistry and biochemistry. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed research papers on phospholipid and chromatin structure. And now he is a Stanford professor. -
Lee Hartwell
Lee Hartwell went to California Institute of Technology where he studied biology. He also went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He learned about Cell division, while using yeast (a substance that wasn’t used a lot back then). He won a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. -
Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard
Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard was only 12 years old when she knew that she wanted to be a biologist. She went to both Frankfurt University where she studied biology and University of Tübingen where she studied biochemistry. Once she graduated, she started to work on Drosophila and learn vertebrate development. She won a Nobel prize. -
Eric Wieschaus
Eric Wieschaus studied biology at Notre Dame and Yale. He worked on Drosophila embryogenesis and developmental Drosophila mutants. He won a Nobel Prize. And currently works at Princeton university. -
Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis went to Georgia Institute of Technology where she studied biochemistry. She also went to University of Kansas where she studied pediatric cardiology. She invented the polymerase chain reaction. She also eventually joined the Cetus Corporation. She won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. -
Mario Capecchi
Mario Capecchi lived as a homeless orphan at 5. After high school he studied political science, physics, molecular biology, and chemistry. One of the places he studied these sciences was Harvard. The main thing he is known for is his discovery of Homologous recombination. -
Thomas (Tom) Cech
Thomas (Tom) Cech went to Grinnell College where he studied chemistry. He also went to University of California where he studied microbiology. And later soon after that he went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his career he made the discovery that RNA can self-splice. After that he won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. -
Bob Horvitz
Bob Horvitz went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. During his education career he studied biology. With his little knowledge on complex biology he began to work with phage. He won a number of awards for his work. -
Mary-Claire King
Mary-Claire King went to Carleton College where she studied mathematics.her and her colleagues revolutionized evolutionary biology. They proved that chimpanzees and humans shared roughly 99% of their genetic material. They also proved the existence of the first gene to be associated with hereditary breast cancer. -
Steve Fodor
Steve Fodor went to Washington State University where he studied Biology and Biochemistry. He also went to Princeton where he studied Chemistry. Later in the life he development of the first DNA GeneChip® -
Pat Brown
Pat Brown studied biochemistry at University of Chicago. He also went through a training at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He later became an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. During his career he learned how to compared the DNA. And he published the first of many papers that use DNA arrays to analyze patterns of expression. -
J. Craig Venter
J. Craig Venter began the race to sequence the human genome. Prior to that he was in the navy. However after that he developed the EST method of finding genes. He also formed The Institute for Genomic Research. -
Francis Collins
Francis Collins was a director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. He was very interested in biology and chemistry. He went to the University of Virginia (after he Graduated from high school at 16) where he studied chemistry. He also went to Yale where he studied molecular biology. -
John Sulston
John Sulston went to Cambridge University where he studied chemistry. He also studied genetics of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. He was most known for his discovery of genetic regulation of the cell cycle.