Arthur Kornberg passed away October 27, 2007

Arthur Kornberg, the pioneer of human genetics and the winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize, passed away on the 26th of October, 2007 at the age of 89. He shared the Nobel Prize in medicine with Severo Ochoa “for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid”.

What a great family he had (from Wikipedia):

They had three sons: Roger David Kornberg (1947) (currently Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University, and the 2006 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Thomas B. Kornberg (1948) (who discovered DNA polymerase II and III in 1970 and is now a biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco), and Kenneth Andrew Kornberg (1950) (an architect specialising in the design of biomedical and biotechnology laboratories and buildings).

According to Brisbane Times:

“He was an extraordinary scientist,” said Paul Berg, a professor of cancer research at the university who won the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry, also for DNA work.

“His accomplishments might be called legendary. The style in which he did his science was inspirational,” the university statement quoted Berg as saying.

Rest in Peace!