Indian-born scientist wins Nobel for Chemistry

(Oct.07,2009): Indian-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who is an American citizen has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath, for atom-by-atom mapping of the protein-making factories within cells.
Announcing the prize on Wed. the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on ribosomes has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotics.
Yonath is the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize. 57-year-old Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist and group leader at the Structural Studies Division of the MRC was born in Chidambaram, Tamilnadu State. He earned his B.Sc. in Physics in 1971 from Baroda University and his PH.D in Physics in 1976 from Ohio University. He moved into Biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he took a year of classes, then conducted research with Dr. Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist.