Arthur Kornberg

Arthur Kornberg — medicine (nobel) with roots in the Russian Empire

Arthur Kornberg won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering DNA polymerase, the enzyme that copies genetic material. He founded Stanford's Biochemistry Department and trained a generation of molecular biologists.

Tracing the roots — Galicia / Russia

His parents Joseph and Lena Kornberg emigrated from Galicia, then part of the Russian Empire, settling in Brooklyn. That working-class immigrant household instilled the disciplined ambition that drove Kornberg from a city college education to the Nobel podium.

Historical context

Russian Empire · c. 1721–1917

Galicia / Russia. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.

Map: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

A career defined by ambition