Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

Awarded the Prize “for his contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry, his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.”

American biochemist. Mullis was born in Lenoir, North Carolina on December 28, 1944. After receiving a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973, Mullis held research posts at various universities. In 1979 he joined Cetus Corp., a California biotechnology firm. From 1986 to 1988 he was director of molecular biology for Xytronyx, Inc., in San Diego; there after he worked as a freelance consultant. Kary B. Mullis died on August 7, 2019 in Newport Beach, CA, USA.