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Chemistry

Michael Smith

Biochemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1993 for site-directed mutagenesis

Born 1932 · Died 2000

Photo: File:Michael Smith party at Mary Vickers's house.1994, F-109-7-0-0-10 001.jpg: S · CC BY-SA 4.0

Michael Smith invented site-directed mutagenesis, a method for changing a single chosen letter of a gene, which let biologists ask precise questions about what each part of a protein does. He gave away his entire Nobel Prize money.

Key achievements

  • Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1993, for site-directed mutagenesis
  • Gave away all of his Nobel Prize money

Universities

  • University of British ColumbiaProfessor1966–2000

    Vancouver, British Columbia

    Professor of biochemistry, where he developed the technique that won the Nobel Prize.

Facts

  • He split his prize money between schizophrenia research and organisations promoting science to the public, keeping none of it.
  • He failed the school examination that would have sent him to grammar school and got in only on a scholarship for late developers.
  • The technique is now routine in every molecular biology laboratory in the world.

Photographs

Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.

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