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ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

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Abstract Volume 24 (2019) pp 140-141

Kary B. Mullis (1944–2019), An Obituary-Tribute

George B. Kauffman*

Department of Chemistry, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-8034, georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu

Published: 4 December 2019

Abstract. Biochemist Kary Banks Mullis (1944–2019) died of pneumonia in Newport Beach, California on August 7, 2019 at the age of 74. He had shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith for the invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a central technique in biochemistry and molecular biology, which The New York Times described as “highly original and significant, virtually dividing biology into the two epochs of before PCR and after PCR.” He married four times and had three children by two of his wives as well as two grandchildren.

Key Words: Chemistry and History; Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR); Cetus Corporation; Ozone Hole; HIV Cause of AIDS; Homeopathy; Astrology

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu)

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