This person won a Nobel Prize

Alfred Hershey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Alfred Hershey
Alfred D. Hershey in 1969
Born December 4, 1908
Owosso, Michigan
Died May 22, 1997
Nationality United States
Fields bacteriology
Alma mater Michigan State University
Known for bacteriophages
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1969

Alfred Day Hershey (December 4, 1908 – May 22, 1997) was an American Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist and geneticist.


He began doing experiments with bacteriophages with Italian-American Salvador Luria and German Max Delbrück in 1940. He found that when two different strains of bacteriophage have infected the same bacteria, the two viruses may exchange genetic information.

He moved with his wife Harriet to Cold Spring Harbor, New York, in 1950 to join the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Genetics. There he performed the famous Hershey-Chase blender experiment with Martha Chase in 1952. This experiment provided additional evidence that DNA, not protein, was the genetic material.

He became director of the Carnegie Institution in 1962 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, shared with Luria and Delbrück for their discovery on the replication of viruses and their genetic structure.

Other websites[change | change source]