Thomas Cech
Chemist
A chemist and former president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute who found the potential origins of life in his work with RNA. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1988, one year after he was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.
He and his research partner, Sidney Altman, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA.
He married Carol Lynn Martinson in 1970.
He and Ahmed Zewail are both Nobel Laureates in Chemistry.