Severo Ochoa

Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was born on September 24, 1905, in Luarca, Asturias, Spain. Inspired by the legendary Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Ochoa earned his medical degree from the University of Madrid in 1929 before conducting biochemical research across Germany, England, and Spain.

Fleeing the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak of World War II, Ochoa emigrated to the United States in 1940, joining New York University School of Medicine in 1942, where he became Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry. In 1955, Ochoa discovered the bacterial enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase, which enabled the first artificial in vitro synthesis of ribonucleic acid (RNA).

This historic breakthrough provided the experimental foundation used by Marshall Nirenberg to decipher the universal genetic code. In 1959, Ochoa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine alongside his former student Arthur Kornberg. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the U.S. National Medal of Science before Ochoa returned to Spain, where he passed away on November 1, 1993.