Biophysicists

Indian physicist, biologist, and plant physiologist Jagadish Chandra Bose revolutionized science with his research on how plants and animals react to external stimuli. He founded the Bose Institute, made pioneering contribution to the field of radio and microwave optics, and also penned one of the first works of Bengali science fiction.

Nobel Prize-winning British biophysicist Francis Crick is best known for his ground-breaking work to determine the structure of the DNA, along with James Watson, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin. He taught at various institutes, such as the Salk Institute, and was also awarded the Order of Merit.

Born in New Zealand, to a doctor father from Dublin, Maurice grew up to be a Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist. His X-ray diffraction studies of DNA helped James D. Watson and Francis Crick, his fellow Nobel laureates, ascertain the DNA structure. He was also part of the Manhattan Project.

Nobel Prize-winning German-American biophysicist Joachim Frank is best known for developing single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM. He has been associated with Columbia University as a professor for a long time and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. He has also helped ascertain the structure of ribosomes.

American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert pioneered research on the sequence of nucleotide links in DNA and RNA molecules. The Harvard and Cambridge alumnus later taught at Harvard. He also co-established firms dealing with genetic engineering and pharmaceutical research and was part of the Human Genome Project.

Nobel Prize-winning biologist Max Delbrück is remembered for his pioneering research on bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria, as part of the Phage Group, along with Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey. The German-born scientist was a Nazi refugee who later settled in the U.S.

Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-American theoretical chemist Martin Karplus has been associated with Harvard University as a professor of chemistry. The Vienna-born scientist had escaped the Nazis to move to the US. Best known for developing multiscale models for complex chemical systems, he has also worked at Columbia University and the University of Strasbourg.

Austrian-born astrophysicist Thomas Gold is best-remembered for proposing the steady state theory of the universe and for his deep gas hypothesis through which he re-defined the abiogenic hypothesis and made it popular in the West. He served as professor of astronomy at Cornell University and remained a member of National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Nobel Prize-winning physiologist and biophysicist Archibald Hill is best remembered for his research on muscular heat production. The Cambridge alumnus also taught physiology at Manchester University and UCL, and was a research professor at the Royal Society. He was married to the sister of economist John Maynard Keynes.

Ephraim Katzir was an Israeli politician and biophysicist. He is best remembered for his service as the President of Israel from 24 May 1973 to 29 May 1978. Ephraim Katzir, who served as the Israel Defense Forces' Chief Scientist from 1966 to 1968, made important contributions in the scientific field as well. He was the recipient of several prestigious awards.

Nobel Prize-winning German-born British physician Sir Bernard Katz is remembered for his research on nerves and muscles. The Carnegie fellowship winner had also been part of the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. He was also knighted for his achievements and made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Bruce Alberts switched to biophysics at Harvard after getting bored with physical chemistry. He later led the NAS as its president and co-wrote iconic text books such as Molecular Biology of the Cell. Apart from teaching at Princeton and Harvard, he worked to improve science education in schools.

Born in Israel, Arieh Warshel had been part of the Israeli Army before he moved to the U.S. for his PhD at Harvard University. His research on computational enzymology helped him create computer models of chemical reactions and earned him a Nobel Prize. He later established a computational biology institute.

Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist Georg von Békésy revolutionized medical science with his discovery of how the cochlea, a part of the inner ear, affects sound reception. His initial research at the Hungarian Telephone System gave way to more intense studies at Harvard and the Karolinska Institute. He later taught at the University of Hawaii.

Nobel Prize-winning American chemist W.E. Moerner is best known for developing super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and for detecting a single molecule in condensed phases. He has been associated with prestigious institutes such as UC San Diego and Stanford University, and has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University.

American biochemist and biophysicist Britton Chance is remembered for developing techniques such as MRI and optical imaging. He also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and worked with Swedish Nobel laureate Hugo Theorell at the Nobel Institute. He was also an Olympic gold medal-winning sailor.

American biophysicist Alexander Rich, who taught at MIT and Harvard, is remembered for discovering polysomes and left-handed Z-DNA. He also founded the pharmaceutical company Alkermes and co-chaired the board of Repligen Corporation. He also won numerous honors, such as the National Medal of Science.

Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist Alan Lloyd Hodgkin is remembered for his research on the chemical processes related to nerve impulses. As a child, he was also interested in ornithology. He also taught at Cambridge and was a research professor at the Royal Society. He was knighted for his achievements.

American biophysicist Jerome Wolken developed a type of lens based on his study of deep-sea creatures, thus helping cataract patients get access to better vision. His lenses also helped photographers and astronomers. He was also associated with Carnegie Mellon University and had penned over a 100 articles.

Toyoichi Tanaka was a Japanese scientist best remembered for his discovery of smart gels, a class of materials that contract or expand when triggered by changes in light, temperature, or other stimulus. Toyoichi Tanaka is also remembered for his association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked as a professor of Physics.