File:Robert_W._Holley_nobel.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Robert W. Holley
Sign in to saveAmerican biochemist (1922–1993)
Robert W. Holley was an American biochemist who lived from 1922 to 1993 and made important contributions to understanding how cells use genetic information. His work is significant because it helped reveal the fundamental mechanisms of life at the molecular level.
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Nobel Prize
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1968
“for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis”
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Urbana
- Place of death
- Los Gatos
- Occupation
- chemist
- Educated at
- Weill Cornell Medicine
- Employer
- Cornell University
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Academic degree
- professor
- Field of work
- chemistry
- Image
- Robert Holley.jpg
- Residence
- Los Gatos
Show 7 more facts
- member of
- National Academy of Sciences
- Commons category
- Robert Holley
- date of birth
- 1922-01-28
- date of death
- 1993-02-11
- cause of death
- lung cancer
- manner of death
- natural causes
- interested in
- biochemistry
Sources (15)
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Encyclopedic overview
Robert W. Holley, on the far left Robert William Holley (January 28, 1922 – February 11, 1993) was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 (with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall Warren Nirenberg) for describing the structure of alanine transfer RNA, linking DNA and protein synthesis.
Holley was born in Urbana, Illinois, and graduated from Urbana High School in 1938. He went on to study chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1942 and commencing his PhD studies in organic chemistry at Cornell University. During World War II Holley spent two years working under Professor Vincent du Vigneaud at Cornell University Medical College, where he was involved in the first chemical synthesis of penicillin. Holley completed his PhD studies in 1947.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Robert W. Holley” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.