Thomas Cech
b. 1947
American chemist, biochemistry professor
- Born
- 8 Dec 1947 · Chicago
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 8 Dec 1947BornBorn in Chicago
- 1985AwardGuggenheim Fellowship
- 1985AwardPfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry
- 1986AwardNewcomb Cleveland Prize
- 1987AwardNAS Award in Molecular Biology
- 1988AwardAlbert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
- 1988AwardCanada Gairdner International Award
- 1988AwardDr H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics
- 1988AwardLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize
- 1988AwardRosenstiel Award
- 1989AwardNobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1995AwardNational Medal of Science
- 2007AwardOthmer Gold Medal
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1947 – today).
- 19501950 FIFA World Cup
- 1950 – 1953Korean War
- 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
- 19541954 FIFA World Cup
- 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
- 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
- 1956Suez Crisis
- 19581958 FIFA World Cup
- 1959Antarctic Treaty System
- 19621962 FIFA World Cup
- 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
- 19661966 FIFA World Cup
- 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
- 1968Prague Spring
- 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
- 19721972 Summer Olympics
- 19741974 FIFA World Cup
- 19781978 FIFA World Cup
- 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
- 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
- 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
- 19841984 Summer Olympics
- 1985Schengen Agreement
- 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
- 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 19901990 FIFA World Cup
- 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
- 19941994 FIFA World Cup
- 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
- 19981998 FIFA World Cup
- 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan
- 2003 – 2011Iraq War
- 20042004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
- 20062006 FIFA World Cup
- 20082008 Summer Olympics
- 2008Russo-Georgian War
- 20102010 Haiti earthquake
- 2010 – 2012Arab Spring
- 20112011 Norway attacks
- 2011Libyan civil war
Biography
Thomas Robert Cech (born 8 December 1947) is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman “for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA.”
Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but can act as a catalyst to speed up the necessary reactions.
He has also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division.
As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2000–2008) he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado.
Text from the Wikipedia article Thomas Cech, CC BY-SA 4.0
About this information
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