List of Famous Molecular Biologists

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Updated June 9, 2017 29.0K views34 items

List of famous molecular biologists, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top molecular biologists in the world? This includes the most prominent molecular biologists, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable molecular biologists is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic molecular biologists were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned molecular biologists.

List people include Joshua Lederberg, Jacques Monod and many additional people as well.

From reputable, prominent, and well known molecular biologists to the lesser known molecular biologists of today, these are some of the best professionals in the molecular biologist field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous molecular biologists ever?" and "What are the names of famous molecular biologists?" then you're in the right place. {#nodes}

  • James D. Watson

    James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Watson earned degrees at the University of Chicago (BS, 1947) and Indiana University (PhD, 1950). Following a post-doctoral year at the University of Copenhagen with Herman Kalckar and Ole Maaløe, Watson worked at the University of ...more

  • Elizabeth Blackburn

    Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studied the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. In 1984, Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere, with Carol W. Greider. For this work, she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Greider and Jack W. Szostak, becoming the only Tasmanian-born Nobel laureate. She also worked in medical ethics, and was controversially ...more

  • Napoleone Ferrara

    Napoleone Ferrara (born 26 July 1956, Catania), is an Italian-American molecular biologist who joined University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center in 2013 after a career in Northern California at the biotechnology giant Genentech, where he pioneered the development of new treatments for angiogenic diseases such as cancer, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy. At Genentech, he discovered VEGF—and made the first anti-VEGF antibody—which suppresses growth of a variety of tumors. These findings helped lead to development of the first clinically available angiogenesis inhibitor, bevacizumab (Avastin), which prevents the growth of new blood vessels into a ...more

  • Leonard Adleman

    Leonard Adleman (born December 31, 1945) is an American computer scientist. He is one of the creators of the RSA encryption algorithm, for which he received the 2002 Turing Award, often called the Nobel prize of Computer science. He is also known for the creation of the field of DNA computing.

  • Christopher Chetsanga

    Christopher J. Chetsanga (born 1935 in Murehwa, Rhodesia) is a prominent Zimbabwean scientist who is a member of the African Academy of Sciences.

  • Joshua Lederberg

    Joshua Lederberg, ForMemRS (May 23, 1925 – February 2, 2008) was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes (bacterial conjugation). He shared the prize with Edward Tatum and George Beadle, who won for their work with genetics. In addition to his contributions to biology, Lederberg did extensive research in artificial intelligence. This included work in the NASA experimental programs seeking life on Mars and the chemistry expert system Dendral.