National Medal of Science - Biological Sciences 1982
Physicist, molecular biologist, behavioral biologist (neurogeneticist). Post Pearl Harbor worked in secret wartime project studying semiconducting properties of germanium, work that foreshadowed development of transistor. Functional gene is a linear stretch of DNA with definable boundaries. Stretches of DNA are all linked to each other as adjacent pieces of chromosome.
Work Invironment
Seymour Benzer was associated with many Nobel Laureates
Erwin Schrodinger Physics 1933
James Watson Physiology or Medicine 1962
Max Delbrück Physiology or Medicine 1969
Salvador Luria Physiology or Medicine 1969
Alfred Hershey Physiology or Medicine 1969
Roger Sperry Physiology or Medicine 1981
Ed Lewis Physiology or Medicine 1995
At the 1955 Brookhaven Symposium, Benzer presented his findings. At break time, 1946 Medicine Nobelist Hermann Muller brought him a piece of cake and congratulated him for the work.
Name: Seymour Benzer
Birth: 15 October, 1921 New York City
Death: 30 November, 2007 Pasadena, CA
Institution: California Institute of Technology Pasadena,California USA
Award: "For elucidating the fine structure of the gene and unifying the classical and molecular concepts of gene structure and function."
Presented by President Reagan at a White House Ceremony on May 24, 1983.
Age Awarded: 61
Education, Mentors: New Utrecht High School. Brooklyn College, physics & chemistry 1942. Ph.D. Physics, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 1947.
Ph.D. mentor physicist Karl Lark-Horowitz. Research mentor Max Delbruck, Medicine Nobelist, 1969.
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