Brief Chronology

  • 1927 --Born Marshall Warren Nirenberg in New York, New York (April 10)
  • 1941 --Nirenberg family moved to Orlando, Florida
  • 1948 --Received BS (Zoology and Chemistry), University of Florida at Gainesville
  • 1952 --Received MS (Zoology), University of Florida
  • 1957 --Received PhD (Biological Chemistry), University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • 1957-59 --American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic, and Digestive Diseases (NIAMDD, later NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • 1959-60 --Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow, NIAMDD
  • 1960-62 --Research Biochemist, NIAMDD; began poly-U experiments with J. Heinrich Matthaei
  • 1961 --Married Perola Zaltzman (d. 2001) in July
  • 1961 --Described the poly-U experiment at International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow in August
  • 1962 --Molecular Biology Award, National Academy of Sciences
  • 1962-66 --Chief, Section on Biochemical Genetics, National Heart Institute (NHI), NIH
  • 1963-66 --Completed sequencing of RNA "code words" for twenty amino acids
  • 1965-69 --Turned attention and laboratory over to field of neurobiology
  • 1966 --Senior Research Biochemist and Chief, Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics, NHI
  • 1966 --Awarded National Medal of Science by President Lyndon B. Johnson
  • 1967 --Began studying the neuroblastoma system
  • 1968 --Shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for deciphering the genetic code with Robert W. Holley and Har Gobind Khorana
  • 1968 --Awarded National Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson
  • 1969 --Published first article on neurobiology in collaboration with Philip Nelson
  • 1973 --Began studying the effects of morphine on the nervous system in collaboration with Werner Klee
  • 1976 --Began work on neural cell receptors using chick retina
  • 1989 --Began study of Homeobox genes in Drosophila fruit fly
  • 2001 --Elected to American Philosophical Society
  • 2005 --Married Myrna Weissman (December 23)
  • 2010 --Died at home in New York, January 15