Edward Lawrie Tatum (1909-1975)

Awarded the Prize “for the discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events.”

American biochemist. Tatum was born on December 14, 1909 at Boulder, Colorado. He was educated at the University of Chicago Wisconsin, taking his A.B. degree in Chemistry in 1931, his M.S. degree in Microbiology in 1932 his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in 1934. He joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, where he was Research Associate Assistant Professor. He was Professor at Yale University. In 1948 he returned to Stanford University as Professor of Biology later became Professor of Biochemistry. Tatum died on November 5, 1975 in New York.