Har Govid Khorana
Har Govind Khorana was born on 9 January 1922 in small village called Raipur
in Punjab (now in Pakistan) and was the youngest of five siblings. His father
was a patwari, an agricultural taxation clerk in British India.
Khorana did his preliminary schooling at home. Later he joined the DAV High
School in Multan. He graduated in science from Punjab University, Lahore, in
1943 and went on to acquire his Masters in science in 1945. He joined the
University of Liverpool for his doctoral work and obtained his doctorate in
1948, He did postdoctoral work at Switzerland's Federal Institute of
Technology, where he met Esther Sibler who became his wife. Later, he took up
a job at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver and continued his
pioneering work on proteins and nucleic acids.
Khorana joined the University of Wisconsin in 1960, and 10 years later,
joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr Khorana received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 along
with M.W. Nirenberg and R.W. Holley for the interpretation of the genetic
code, its function and protein synthesis. Till his death, he was the Alfred P.
Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry Emeritus at MIT. The Government of
India honoured him with the Padma Vibhushan in 1969.
He won numerous prestigious awards, including the Albert Lasker award for
medical research, the National Medal of Science, the Ellis Island Medal of
Honour, and so on. But he remained modest throughout his life and stayed away
from the glare of publicity.
In a note after winning the Nobel Prize, Dr Khorana wrote: 'Although poor, my
father was dedicated to educating his children and we were practically the
only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people'. Following
his father's footsteps, Dr Khorana imparted education to thousands of
students for more than half a century, He was more interested in the next
project and experiments than cashing in on his fame. He was borm in a poor
family in a small village in Punjab, and by dint of sheer talent and tenacity
rose to be one of science's immortals. Dr Har Govind Khorana died in a
hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, on 9 November 2011.
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