Research at Indiana University

A total of seven Nobel Laureates are affiliated with Indiana University: six as researchers prior to, during, or after they received the Nobel Prize and one as a part-time student at a regional campus. Of the Nobel Laureates, five were in the life sciences, two in physics.

In the late 1940s, four of the IU-affiliated Nobel Laureates in the life sciences worked together at Indiana University: Hermann Muller, James Watson, Salvador Luria, and Renato Dulbecco. Muller and Luria were at that time both faculty at IU. Muller was awarded his Nobel Prize in 1946, while at IU. In 1947, James Watson began his graduate study at IU, where he was greatly influenced by Muller. By the end of his first year at IU, Watson had begun doing research under Salvador Luria to examine bacteria and viruses. Luria became Watson's dissertation advisor shortly thereafter. In a lab in the attic of IU Bloomington's Kirkwood Hall, Watson and Luria worked together with Renato Dulbecco. One of Dulbecco's breakthroughs in 1959 came in conjunction with research that was being done by Luria and Muller. Similarly, Luria's work was critical in laying the foundation for Watson's efforts to determine the structure of DNA. Indiana University played a pivotal role in the development of modern molecular biology and the discovery of the biochemical basis of our genetic codes. (See also: http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/HomePages/040299/text/vip.htm, http://library.cshl.edu/archives/archives/Watson_Archives/Series_6_Finding_Aid.pdf)

Further information on the seven Nobel Laureates affiliated with IU follow:

Riccardo Giacconi

Image courtesy of IU Archives

Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Physics at IU in 1958 and 1959

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2002

Giacconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources. An avid researcher who preferred to focus on practical rather than book learning, Giacconi did his thesis work in Italy on the development of nuclear interactions by protons in a cloud chamber. After two years as Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Milan, Giacconi immigrated to the US in 1956. As a Fulbright Fellow at IU, he spent two years working on construction of a cloud chamber for cosmic ray research.

Ferid Murad

Image courtesy of IU Archives

Attended classes during the summer at Indiana University, between 1954 and 1957

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1998

A native of northwestern Indiana, Murad graduated from DePauw University in 1958. During his undergraduate years, when he was working only one summer job, he would take additional classes in math or literature at one of IU's regional campuses. Murad went on to an extremely distinguished career in medical research, including being a department chairman at Stanford University and a Vice President of Abbott Laboratories. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998 for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system (1/3 prize w/Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro)

Renato Dulbecco

Image courtesy of IU Archives

Faculty member at Indiana University from 1946-49

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975

Dulbecco worked with Salvador Luria at Indiana University. Dulbecco's work, like Luria's, focused on the affects of ultraviolet light on bacteriophages. By the late 1950s, after leaving IU, his interest had expanded to cancer-causing viruses. His research in that direction yielded the Nobel Prize.

Salvador E. Luria

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Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor of Bacteriology at Indiana University from 1943-1950

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969

Luria was awarded a Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses (1/3 prize w/ Max Delbrück and Alfred D. Hershey). During his time at IU, Luria rose from Instructor to tenured Associate Professor of Bacteriology at Indiana University. While at IU, Luria studied the process of multiplication of bacteriophages, and performed research into the effects on them of ultraviolet radiation. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. They are unable to reproduce themselves, and they multiply by injecting their genetic material into bacteria, which then make many new bacteriophages. Luria went on after leaving IU to do his most important research – work that used radioactive labeling to identify that the genetic material of a bacteriophage was in the nucleic acids within the bacteriophage (rather than the protein component). This research is considered a classic of experimental design, and was a critical step in the deciphering of the genetic code.

It was this Luria's work with UV radiation, and Muller's work with X-rays, upon which James Watson built his own graduate research using X-rays.

J. Hans D. Jensen

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Visiting Professor at Indiana University in 1953

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1963

Jensen was a visiting professor at Indiana University for one year, collaborating with other members of the Physics Department. He went on to make critical discoveries about the structure of atoms, which led to his Nobel Prize.

James D. Watson

Image courtesy of IU Archives

Graduate student at IU 1947-1950; Ph.D. in Zoology at Indiana University in 1950

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology 1962

James D. Watson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962, for discovering in detail the structure of DNA, the molecule that holds our genetic code. (1/3 prize w/ Francis Harry Compton Crick and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins)

While at Indiana University, Watson was influenced by the work of Muller and also of geneticist Tracy Sonneborn. Watson's Ph.D. thesis, done under the guidance of Salvador Luria, focused on the multiplication of bacteria exposed to X-rays. Watson received his doctorate from IU in 1950. In 1951, he met Francis Crick, with whom he would go on to discover the double-helix structure of DNA.

Hermann Joseph Muller

Image courtesy of IU Archives

Faculty member at Indiana University (Zoology Department) from 1945-1964

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1946

Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1946, for his entire career's work – particularly the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation. Muller had shown the ability to create genetic mutants in fruit flies with X-rays, a discovery that was critical to understanding genetics and contributed strongly to the eventual discovery of the structure of DNA. As a fruit fly biologist, Muller was also a key figure in now many decades of IU leadership in the study of the genetics of fruit flies (and by understanding fruit flies in detail, understanding genetics of all animals – ourselves included). Muller was recruited to IU by then-President Herman B Wells, who at that time was deeply involved in recruitment of top-quality faculty. Muller retired from IU in June 1964.