Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Sydney Brenner | | | Institution: | The Salk Institute | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | Death Date: | April 5, 2019 | | | | | | |
Sydney Brenner was born in South Africa and studied medicine and science at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Working in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, he received his D.Phil. degree from Oxford University in 1952. After briefly returning to South Africa, Dr. Brenner joined the Medical Research Council's Unit in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. He became the director of its successor, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in 1979. In 1987 he became director of the MRC's Unit of Molecular Genetics, retiring in 1992. His early research was in molecular genetics. Working with bacterophages and bacteria, he discovered messenger RNA (working with Jacob and Meselson) and, with Crick, showed that the code was composed of triplets. In the 1960s, he changed the direction of his work and began research on C. elegans, establishing it as a powerful experimental system for the analysis of complex biological processes. Believing that the techniques of cloning and sequencing would open up new ways of approaching genetics, he turned his attention to vertebrate genomics and established the pufferfish genome as a valuable tool in genome analysis. He served as the founder and president of the Molecular Sciences Institute, a private research institute in Berkeley, CA. His achievements were recognized with the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (1971), both the Royal Medal (1974) and the Copley Medal (1991) from the Royal Society of London, and the Kyoto Prize (1990), to name just four of more than twenty such honors. In 1987 he was named a Companion of Honour. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1979. Sydney Brenner died April 5, 2019 in Singapore at the age of 92. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Robert H. Burris | | | Institution: | University of Wisconsin, Madison | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | May 11, 2010 | | | | | | |
For forty years Robert H. Burris was a professor in the University of Wisconsin's department of biochemistry. After receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from South Dakota State University, he arrived at Wisconsin in 1936 and completed a Ph.D. in bacteriology in 1940. He conducted penicillin studies and taught plant biochemistry prior to joining the biochemistry department as an assistant professor in 1944. Around this time he began his research on biological nitrogen fixation, work which would be of great importance to agriculture and humankind. Marked by imagination, painstaking analysis and innovative use of methodologies, many of which were of his own devising, Dr. Burris conducted studies using radioactive isotopes and mass spectrometers, working primarily on photosynthesis and respiratory enzymes in addition to biological nitrogen fixation. Between 1958 and 1970 Dr. Burris was chair of the department, training many doctoral and post-doctoral students and authoring hundreds of research papers. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, and former president of the American Society of Plant Physiologists, Dr. Burris retired from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. He continued to conduct research and publish scientific papers long past his retirement. He died on May 11, 2010, at age 96. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Erwin Chargaff | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1905 | | | Death Date: | June 20, 2002 | | | | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Louis B. Flexner | | | Institution: | University of Pennsylvania | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 209. Neurobiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1902 | | | Death Date: | 3/29/96 | | | | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Niels Kaj Jerne | | | Institution: | Basel Institute for Immunology | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1911 | | | Death Date: | 10/7/94 | | | | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Georg Klein | | | Institution: | Karolinska Institutet | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | Death Date: | December 10, 2016 | | | | | | |
George Klein was a professor and research group leader at the Karolinska Institute's Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center (Sweden). He joined the Institute as a research fellow in 1947 and achieved the rank of professor in 1957. Prior to that time, he served as instructor of histology (1945) and pathology (1946) at the University of Budapest in his native Hungary. A pioneer in the application of somatic cell genetics to cancer research, Dr. Klein began using immunological techniques to analyze the nature of malignant transformation. He edited Advances in Cancer Research for many years and wrote a number of books, including The Atheist and the Holy City (1990); Pîetà (1992) and Live Now (1997). A foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Klein was also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the American Association of Immunologists. His many honors included the American Cancer Society Annual Award (1973), the Gardner Award (1976), the General Motors Sloan Award (1979); the Behring Prize (1977) and the Paracelsus Medal (2001). George Klein died December 10, 2016 in Sweden at the age of 91. | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. Gardner Lindzey | | | Institution: | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 210. Behavioral Biology, Psychology, Ethology, and Animal Behavior | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1920 | | | Death Date: | February 4, 2008 | | | | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Colin S. Pittendrigh | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 210. Behavioral Biology, Psychology, Ethology, and Animal Behavior | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1918 | | | Death Date: | 3/19/96 | | | | |
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