Har Gobind Khurana

Born on 9th January 1922, Har Gobind Khurana is best known as the man behind the development of chemical methods to determine the nucleotide sequence of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) and for deciphering the genetic code.

Har Gobind Khurana was from a poor family and his father was a village patwari (taxation official). In spite of the difficulties, his father was inclined to educating his children and they were practically the only literate family in the village of Raipur.

Har Gobind Khurana attended D.A.V. High School in Multan (now in modern-day West Punjab, Pakistan), and perceived his Bachelor’s (BSc) and Master’s (MSc) degrees from the Punjab University in Lahore. In the year 1945, a fellowship from the Government of India made it possible for him to go to Britain and perceive his doctorate studies from the University of Liverpool.

In 1952 he went to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Though this university offered little in terms of facility at that time, it gave him the freedom to carry out research in the field of his choice.

In 1968, Har Gobind Khurana received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, along with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for cracking the genetic code.

Read More:

5 Facts About Indian Universities Revealed!