Prof. Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.
His pioneering research in the area of the structural biology of macromolecules has contributed to the understanding of how we view the structure and role of genetic expression, and has furthered our understanding of the basic process of life. He has conducted highly important research in the field of genetic expression of eukaryotic organisms (entities whose cells include a nucleus), research whose essential contribution has been the revelation of nucelosomes the elementary parts of chromosomes which participate in the control of genetic expression. Prof. Kornberg has also done basic, pioneering research on the subject of the structure and role of large enzymes which carry out the process of transcription of RNA the first step in genetic expression.
Prof. Kornberg was born in 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri, in the US. He is a Fellow in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1986, and an honorary doctor of Hebrew University (2001). he is a Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.
He has maintained strong personal and scientific ties with Hebrew University for many years, especially with the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, where he works with his wife, Prof. Yahli Lorch, every year during the summer months. He has hosted many researchers from Hebrew University at his laboratory at Stanford University. He also heads the annual Jerusalem School in Life Sciences held each year at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University.