CHRISTIAN B. ANFINSEN -- 1972 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
M.S. in Chemistry (1939), University of Pennsylvania,

Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania in 1916. B.S., Swarthmore College, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School. His award acknowledges pioneering work in establishing the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active center of ribonuclease. His work provided an answer to the question concerning the way in which the active enzyme is formed in living cells. Christian B. Anfinsen died in 1995.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa

MICHAEL S. BROWN -- 1985 NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
B.S. in Chemistry (1962), M.D. (1966), University of Pennsylvania

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941. He was awarded for discoveries concerning "the regulation of cholesterol metabolism." These discoveries have led to new approaches to the treatment and prevention of atherosclerosis. While at Penn, Michael Brown also served as features editor and editor-in-chief of the Daily Pennsylvanian. He is currently a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine & Director of the Erik Jonsson Center for Research in Molecular Genetics and Human Disease at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa

STANLEY B. PRUSINER -- 1997 NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
A.B. (cum laude) in Chemistry (1964), M.D. (1968), University of Pennsylvania

Born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1936. He received the prize for his pioneering discovery of an entirely new class of disease-causing agents called "prions" and the elucidation of the underlying principles of their mode of action. His discovery may furnish the basis for developing new treatment strategies for dementia-related diseases including Alzheimer's. Since 1988, he is a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa

AHMED H. ZEWAIL -- 1999 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Ph.D. in Chemistry (1974), University of Pennsylvania

Born in Damanhur, Egypt in 1946. B.S., University of Alexandria. He was honored for the development of ultrafast laser techniques for observing chemical reactions in real time and unraveling the dynamics of fundamental chemical processes. While at Penn, he did his Ph.D. thesis under the tutelage of Professor Robin Hochstrasser. Ahmed Zewail is presently the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics and the Director of the NSF Laboratory for Molecular Sciences at the California Institute of Technology.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa

ALAN G. MACDIARMID -- 2000 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania

Born in Masterton, New Zealand in 1927. Alan MacDiarmid received a M.Sc. from the University of New Zealand (1950) and Ph.D degrees from the University of Wisconsin (1953) and the University of Cambridge (1955). His award acknowledges the pioneering discovery and development of a new form of organic polymer that conducts electricity. This new form of materials is finding a variety of applications in electronics and information industries. He joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1955, where he is currently the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa

HIDEKI SHIRAKAWA -- 2000 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Postdoctoral Research Associate (1976 -- 77), University of Pennsylvania

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1936. Ph.D., Tokyo Institute of Technology. While a junior faculty member at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Shirakawa synthesized an unusual fibrillar form of organic polymer having a bright silvery luster. Shortly thereafter while a post-doctoral associate at Penn, he and Professors Alan MacDiarmid and Alan Heeger (Physics) discovered the chemical doping of this material which resulted in the synthesis of the first conducting polymer. He is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Japan.

Anifsen | Brown | Prusiner | Zewail | MacDiarmid | Shirakawa