Barbara McClintock

Barbara McClintock (English: Barbara McClintock, June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992), American cytogeneticist. For her discovery of gene transposition, she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. She was the first female scientist to win the award alone without a co-winner. Born in Hartford, Connecticut. She graduated from Cornell University in 1923 and received a doctorate in plant sciences from the same university in 1927. After serving as a researcher at Cornell University and the NRC, she became a lecturer at the University of Missouri from 1936 to 1941. From 1942 to 1967, she was a researcher at the Cold Spring Harbor Research Institute in the Department of Genetics at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington. McClintock discovered the existence of transposons before the structure of DNA was revealed, and for a time, her groundbreaking theory was long ignored by the academic community. The theory was proven in later years by the development of molecular biology techniques, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 81. But when she heard the news, McClintock murmured "Okay!" She said she returned to the cornfield as usual. In 1970, President Nixon awarded her the National Medal of Science. In 1982, she was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize by Columbia University, together with Susumu Tonegawa (1987 Nobel Prize winner in medicine).