Roger Kornberg

Roger D. Kornberg is a biochemist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is best known for his work on the molecular biology of eukaryotic transcription, which is the process by which genetic information in DNA is copied into RNA. In 2006, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his “studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”, he was able to create a three-dimensional molecular model of the transcription process, which was the first of its kind. He used X-ray crystallography and other techniques to study the structure and function of the enzymes that carry out transcription, providing new insights into how this crucial process is regulated and controlled. He continues to conduct research on transcription and other topics in structural biology and biochemistry, and he has published many papers in scientific journals.

Awards and Honors

• 1981: Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry
• 1982: Passano Award from the Passano Foundation
• 1990: Ciba-Drew Award
• 1997: Harvey Prize from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
• 2000: Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 2001: Hoppe-Seyler Award, Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• 2001: Welch Award in Chemistry
• 2002: ASBMB-Merck Award
• 2002: Pasarow Award in Cancer Research
• 2002: Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer
• 2003: Elected to EMBO Membership
• 2003: Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, USC
• 2005: General Motors Cancer Research Foundation’s Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize
• 2006: Dickson Prize from University of Pittsburgh
• 2006: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 2006: Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University
• 2008: American Philosophical Society Membership
• 2009: Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society