PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: Nobel Prize - Medicine
Russian physiologist
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex. In a now-classic experiment, he trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a metronome...
German medical scientist
Paul Ehrlich was a German medical scientist known for his pioneering work in hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy and for his discovery of the first effective treatment for syphilis. He received the...
German bacteriologist
Robert Koch was a German physician and one of the founders of bacteriology. He discovered the anthrax disease cycle (1876) and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883). For his...
American biologist
Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American zoologist and geneticist, famous for his experimental research with the fruit fly (Drosophila) by which he established the chromosome theory of heredity. He showed that...
American physicist
Hans Bethe was a German-born American theoretical physicist who helped shape quantum physics and increased the understanding of the atomic processes responsible for the properties of matter and of the...
Scottish bacteriologist
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist best known for his discovery of penicillin. Fleming had a genius for technical ingenuity and original observation. His work on wound infection and lysozyme,...
Austrian zoologist
Konrad Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist and the founder of modern ethology, the study of animal behaviour by means of comparative zoological methods. His ideas contributed to an understanding of how behavioral...
American immunologist
Drew Weissman is an American immunologist whose groundbreaking research into RNA (ribonucleic acid) opened the path to the development of RNA therapeutics, most notably the generation of messenger RNA...
American engineer
Jack Kilby was an American engineer and one of the inventors of the integrated circuit, a system of interconnected transistors on a single microchip. In 2000, Kilby was a corecipient, with Herbert Kroemer...
American immunologist
Bruce A. Beutler is an American immunologist and corecipient, with French immunologist Jules A. Hoffmann and Canadian immunologist and cell biologist Ralph M. Steinman, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physiology...
British-American neuroscientist
John O’Keefe is a British-American neuroscientist who contributed to the discovery of place cells in the hippocampus of the brain and elucidated their role in cognitive (spatial) mapping. O’Keefe’s investigations...
American geneticist and biophysicist
James Watson is an American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis of heredity....
Norwegian neuroscientist
Edvard I. Moser is a Norwegian neuroscientist best known for his role in the discovery of grid cells in the brain and the identification of their function in generating spatial coordinates used by animals...
Norwegian neuroscientist
May-Britt Moser is a Norwegian neuroscientist who contributed to the discovery of grid cells in the brain and the elucidation of their role in generating a system of mental coordinates by which animals...
American geneticist
Hermann Joseph Muller was an American geneticist best remembered for his demonstration that mutations and hereditary changes can be caused by X rays striking the genes and chromosomes of living cells....
Hungarian-born biochemist
Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-born biochemist known for her pioneering research into RNA (ribonucleic acid) therapeutics, particularly the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Karikó’s investigation...
Canadian immunologist and cell biologist
Ralph M. Steinman was a Canadian immunologist and cell biologist who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with American immunologist Bruce A. Beutler and French immunologist Jules A....
American molecular biologist and geneticist
Gary Ruvkun is an American molecular biologist and geneticist renowned for his groundbreaking research on microRNA (miRNA) and RNA interference (RNAi) as well as for his work on aging and longevity. In...
Swedish evolutionary geneticist
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish evolutionary geneticist who specialized in the study of DNA from ancient specimens and who was the first to contribute to the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome. Pääbo also...
American biochemist and geneticist
Jack W. Szostak is an English-born American biochemist and geneticist who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with American molecular biologists Elizabeth H. Blackburn and...
French immunologist
Jules Hoffmann is a French immunologist and corecipient, with American immunologist Bruce A. Beutler and Canadian immunologist and cell biologist Ralph M. Steinman, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physiology...
Japanese microbiologist
Ōmura Satoshi is a Japanese microbiologist known for his discovery of natural products, particularly from soil bacteria. Of special importance was Ōmura’s discovery of the bacterium Streptomyces avermitilis,...
American virologist
Harvey J. Alter is an American physician and virologist known for his discoveries pertaining to viruses that cause hepatitis, particularly his contributions to the discovery and isolation of hepatitis...
German-American scientist
Günter Blobel was a German-born American cellular and molecular biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1999 for his discovery that proteins have signals that govern their...
British biologist
John Gurdon is a British developmental biologist who was the first to demonstrate that egg cells are able to reprogram differentiated (mature) cell nuclei, reverting them to a pluripotent state, in which...
American virologist
David Baltimore is an American virologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1975 with Howard M. Temin and Renato Dulbecco. Working independently, Baltimore and Temin discovered reverse...
American geneticist
Craig C. Mello is an American scientist, who was a corecipient, with Andrew Z. Fire, of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2006 for discovering RNA interference (RNAi), a mechanism that regulates...
American molecular biologist and biochemist
Elizabeth Blackburn is an Australian-born American molecular biologist and biochemist who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with American molecular biologist Carol W. Greider...
American molecular biologist
Carol W. Greider is an American molecular biologist who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with American molecular biologist and biochemist Elizabeth H. Blackburn and American...
American physiologist
Phillip A. Sharp is an American molecular biologist, awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard J. Roberts, for his independent discovery that individual genes are often...
American physician and medical researcher
William G. Kaelin, Jr. is an American scientist known for his studies of tumour suppressor genes and proteins and for his role in identifying the molecular mechanisms that allow cells to sense and adapt...
Japanese scientist
Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese physician and researcher who developed a revolutionary method for generating stem cells from existing cells of the body. This method involved inserting specific genes into...
American developmental biologist and molecular geneticist
Victor Ambros is an American developmental biologist and molecular geneticist best known for his pioneering work in the discovery of microRNA (miRNA), a type of small RNA molecule that serves essential...
American virologist
Charles M. Rice is an American virologist who was known for his contributions to the development of highly effective treatments for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. His work to generate a version...
American geneticist
Jeffrey C. Hall is an American geneticist known for his investigations of courtship behaviour and biological rhythms in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. His research into molecular mechanisms underlying...
American immunologist
James P. Allison is an American immunologist who contributed to the discovery of mechanisms underlying T-cell activation and who was a pioneer in the development of immune checkpoint therapy for cancer....
Chinese scientist and phytochemist
Tu Youyou is a Chinese scientist and phytochemist known for her isolation and study of the antimalarial substance qinghaosu, later known as artemisinin, one of the world’s most effective malaria-fighting...
Swedish biologist
Torsten Wiesel is a Swedish neurobiologist, recipient with David Hunter Hubel and Roger Wolcott Sperry of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. All three scientists were honoured for their investigations...
Austrian immunologist and pathologist
Karl Landsteiner was an Austrian American immunologist and pathologist who received the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the major blood groups and the development of the...
American scientist
Barbara McClintock was an American scientist whose discovery in the 1940s and ’50s of mobile genetic elements, or “jumping genes,” won her the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983. McClintock,...
American geneticist
Michael W. Young is an American geneticist who contributed to the discovery of molecular mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythm, the 24-hour period of biological activity in humans and other organisms....
British biophysicist
Francis Crick was a British biophysicist, who, with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their determination of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic...
American molecular biologist
Ardem Patapoutian is a Lebanese-born American molecular biologist and neuroscientist known for his investigations of the molecular basis of mechanoreception, the ability of animals to detect and respond...
American biochemist and neurologist
Stanley B. Prusiner is an American biochemist and neurologist whose discovery in 1982 of disease-causing proteins called prions won him the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Prusiner grew up...
American physiologist
David Julius is an American physiologist known for his discovery of heat- and cold-sensing receptors in the nerve endings of the skin. His elucidation of a receptor known as TRPV1, along with his subsequent...
Irish-born American parasitologist
William Campbell is an Irish-born American parasitologist known for his contribution to the discovery of the anthelmintic compounds avermectin and ivermectin, which proved vital to the control of certain...
American geneticist
Michael Rosbash is an American geneticist known for his discoveries concerning circadian rhythm, the cyclical 24-hour period of biological activity that drives daily behavioral patterns. Rosbash worked...
American biochemist
Marshall Warren Nirenberg was an American biochemist and corecipient, with Robert William Holley and Har Gobind Khorana, of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He was cited for his role in...
American scientist
Harold Varmus is an American virologist and cowinner (with J. Michael Bishop) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for his work on the origins of cancer. Varmus graduated from Amherst...
British physician and scientist
Peter J. Ratcliffe is a British physician and scientist known for his research into the regulation of erythropoietin, a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production in response to low blood oxygen...
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