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Richard Axel
Richard Axel · Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Person

Richard Axel

b. 1946

American molecular biologist

Born
2 Jul 1946 · Brooklyn

Life timeline

Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.

Showing 92 years
  1. 2 Jul 1946BornBorn in Brooklyn
  2. 1982AwardAlan T. Waterman Award
  3. 1989AwardRichard Lounsbery Award
  4. 1996AwardRosenstiel Award
  5. 1998AwardBristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research
  6. 2002AwardPerl-UNC Prize
  7. 2003AwardCanada Gairdner International Award
  8. 2004AwardNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  9. 2014AwardForeign Member of the Royal Society
  10. 2018AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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Meanwhile in the world

Major world events during their lifetime (1946 – today).

  1. 19501950 FIFA World Cup
  2. 1950 – 1953Korean War
  3. 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
  4. 19541954 FIFA World Cup
  5. 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
  6. 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
  7. 1956Suez Crisis
  8. 19581958 FIFA World Cup
  9. 1959Antarctic Treaty System
  10. 19621962 FIFA World Cup
  11. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
  12. 19661966 FIFA World Cup
  13. 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
  14. 1968Prague Spring
  15. 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
  16. 19721972 Summer Olympics
  17. 19741974 FIFA World Cup
  18. 19781978 FIFA World Cup
  19. 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
  20. 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
  21. 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
  22. 19841984 Summer Olympics
  23. 1985Schengen Agreement
  24. 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
  25. 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
  26. 19901990 FIFA World Cup
  27. 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  28. 19941994 FIFA World Cup
  29. 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
  30. 19981998 FIFA World Cup
  31. 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan
  32. 2003 – 2011Iraq War
  33. 20042004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
  34. 20062006 FIFA World Cup
  35. 20082008 Summer Olympics
  36. 2008Russo-Georgian War
  37. 20102010 Haiti earthquake
  38. 2010 – 2012Arab Spring
  39. 20112011 Norway attacks
  40. 2011Libyan civil war

Biography

Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won him and Linda Buck, a former postdoctoral research scientist in his group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004.

In February 2026, Axel resigned as co-director of Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, calling his past association with Jeffrey Epstein "a serious error in judgment" and apologizing for compromising trust. He also stepped down from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Text from the Wikipedia article Richard Axel, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this information

Dates and life events come from this person’s Wikidata entry.

We only show events that the sources give a date for. Anything without a date is left out rather than guessed.