15FratRow.Com
The Unofficial Home of University of Florida Pi Lambda Phi Alumni

January 15, 2010

Brother Marshall Nirenberg (pc '45) has died

Florida Delta brother Marshall W. Nirenberg has died. Nirenberg is a Nobel Prize winner and untangled the genetic code. He died today in Manhattan at the age of 82 of cancer.

Nirenberg was interested in the relationship between DNA, RNA and proteins. This led to the discovery of codons, a sequence of DNA that specify the amino acids that construct a protein. Nirenberg made this incredible discovery at the age of 34. Later he broke the genetic code again when he identified 63 more codons. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1968.

Nirenberg was born in Brooklyn in 1927. At the age of 14 he developed rheumatic fever so the family moved to Orlando for the warmer weather. Nirenberg graduated high school in 1945 and enrolled at UF where he became a brother at Pi Lambda Phi. He earned two degrees in Zoology from UF. A BS in 1948 and an MS in 1952.

Nirenberg is considered one of the 20 most famous alumni from the University of Florida. He also made the top 20 list for Pilam.