Har Govind Khurana
1922 to 2022
its hundred
years this year since Har Gobind Khurana a Nobel prize winner of Medicine and
an Indian American scientist was born and its our duty to remember this great
man of science
Indian
peninsula had produced several scientists amongst others over the years though
their recognition may have come from foreign shores, one of the notables
amongst them has been Har Gobind Khurana.
He was born
in 1922 in Raipur part of British India which would become part of Pakistan after
Independence, He is known now as an Indian American who got American
citizenship in 1966.he is a Punjabi Hindu, youngest of five children, his
father educating them all though just a clerk in British India.
Har Gobind had
his early classes under a tree later in school, got scholarship for under and
postgraduation In Lahore university in Chemistry by 1945.
He then got
a fellowship scholarship to get his PhD from Cambridge, for study on chemistry
of Melanin’s with Roger beer later post-doctoral study in Switzerland where he
also worked, later he moved to Canada and from there to US, university of Wisconsin,
Madison where he was a Biochemistry professor and had started research on
nucleotides and RNA codes for protein synthesis.
He married
a Swiss national Esther and had three children
Before
going to Canada, he had tried to settle down in Punjab but he did not find
suitable placement and support for research
He shared
the Nobel prize in physiology in Medicine in 1968 with Robert Holley and
Marshal Nirenberg synthesizing oligonucleotides as building blocks of amino acids,
precursor of polymerase chain reaction and discovering set of three nucleotides
called codons as basic building blocks
Though it
was known our cells made genes which made proteins the process was unknown
In short,
he discovered the essential function of our gene and for construction the first
synthetic gene, he deciphered our DNA and wrote the dictionary for our genetic
language in fact he not only made a synthetic DNA but put it in a live
bacterium an early start to promising biotechnology
He built
RNA chains later used to produce protein molecules
He would
often say if you want to travel far you need to travel alone
He was
helpful to his compatriots inspiring to his students and polite to society.
He loved
long hikes, music and swimming
He knew of
the announcement of his Nobel prize the last as he had gone for one of his
lonely walks along lake Madison where he camped in a tent with no telephone or
radio but pen and paper to write on his work and his wife had to reach him by
driving to him after hearing the news
He was
given the Padma Vibhusan in 1969 by the Indian Government
Strangely
the Pakistan Government never claimed him or gave him any honors ignoring him
as a Hindu Indian
Joined MIT
in 1970 and was there till he retired in 2007
In 2007
University of Wisconsin, Government of India under Department of Technology and
Indo US science and technology forum would form the Korona program to create scientists,
industrialists and social entrepreneurs in USA and India.
He would
get foreign member of Royal society in 1978
He would
work on Rhodopsin the protein in our retinas post Nobel prize
He passed
away in 2011 at 89 years
