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Hargobind Khorana

posted Jul 20, 2013, 12:05 AM by The Scientific Indian   [ updated Jul 20, 2013, 12:19 AM ]

Har Gobind Khorana also known as Hargobind Khorana (January 9, 1922 – November 9, 2011)[2][3] was a biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how the nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. Khorana and Nirenberg were also awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in the same year. <More>

Dr. Khorana, an unassuming man, shied from the spotlight and did not like talking on the phone. In the weeks before he received the National Medal of Science, a stack of message slips piled up on his desk with increasingly urgent messages that the White House had called and that he should call back, Dr. Sakmar said. With the ceremony date fast approaching, a representative of the White House tracked down Dr. Khorana at a scientific meeting and told him he would be receiving the award. Dr. Khorana assured him he would attend. <More>

References: Wikipedia, NY Times