Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Nirenberg in 2003
Born	April 10, 1927 New York City
Died	January 15, 2010(2010-01-15) (aged 82) New York City
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of Florida University of Michigan
Known for	genetic code
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 Franklin Medal in 1968

Nirenberg and Matthaei from 1961

Nirenberg from 1962.

Marshall Warren Nirenberg (April 10, 1927 – January 15, 2010)^[1] was an American biochemist and geneticist of Jewish origin.^{[citation needed]} He shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for "breaking the genetic code" and describing how it operates in protein synthesis. In the same year, together with Har Gobind Khorana, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University.

Research[link]

By 1959, experiments and analysis such as the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment, the Hershey-Chase experiment, the Watson-Crick structure and the Meselson-Stahl experiment had shown DNA to be the molecule of genetic information. It was not known, however, how DNA directed the expression of proteins, or what role RNA had in these processes. Nirenberg teamed up with Heinrich J. Matthaei at the National Institutes of Health to answer these questions. They produced RNA comprised solely of uracil, a nucleotide that only occurs in RNA. They then added this synthetic poly-uracil RNA into a cell-free extract of Escherichia coli which contained the DNA, RNA, ribosomes and other cellular machinery for protein synthesis. They added DNase, which breaks apart the DNA, so that no additional proteins would be produced other than that from their synthetic RNA. They then added 1 radioactively labeled amino acid, the building blocks of proteins, and 19 unlabeled amino acids to the extract, varying the labeled amino acid in each sample. In the extract containing the radioactively labeled phenylalanine, the resulting protein was also radioactive. They realized that they had found the genetic code for phenylalanine: UUU (three uracil bases in a row) on RNA. This was the first step in deciphering the codons of the genetic code and the first demonstration of messenger RNA (see Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

In August 1961, at the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow, Nirenberg presented a paper to a small group of scientists. Francis Crick convinced the conference leaders to invite Nirenberg to repeat his performance the next day.^[9][10] Speaking before the assembled congress of more than a thousand people, Nirenberg electrified the scientific community. He quickly received great scientific attention for these experiments. Within a few years, his research team had performed similar experiments and found that three-base repeats of adenosine (AAA) produced the amino acid lysine, and cytosine repeats (CCC) produced proline. The next breakthrough came when Philip Leder, a postdoctoral researcher in Nirenberg's lab, developed a method for determining the genetic code on pieces of tRNA (see Nirenberg and Leder experiment). This greatly sped up the assignment of three-base codons to amino acids so that 50 codons were identified in this way. Khorana's experiments confirmed these results and completed the genetic code translation.

The period between 1961 and 1962 is often referred to as the “coding race” because of the competition between the labs of Nirenberg at NIH and Nobel laureate Severo Ochoa at New York University Medical School, who had a massive staff. Faced with the possibility of helping the first NIH scientist win a Nobel prize, many NIH scientists put aside their own work to help Nirenberg in deciphering the mRNA codons for amino acids. Dr. DeWitt Stetten, Jr., director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, called this period of collaboration “NIH's finest hour.”^[11]

Nirenberg's later research focused on neuroscience, neural development, and the homeobox genes.

Biography[link]

Nirenberg was born in New York City, the son of Harry and Minerva Nirenberg. He developed rheumatic fever as a boy, so the family moved to Orlando, Florida to take advantage of the subtropical climate. He developed an early interest in biology. In 1948 he received his B.S. degree, and in 1952, a master's degree in zoology from the University of Florida at Gainesville where he was also a member of the Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity.^[12] His dissertation for the Master's thesis was an ecological and taxonomic study of caddis flies (Trichoptera). He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1957.

He began his postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1957 as a fellow of the American Cancer Society in what was then called the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. In 1959 he became a research biochemist at the NIH and began to study the steps that relate DNA, RNA and protein. Nirenberg's groundbreaking experiments advanced him to become the head of the Section of Biochemical Genetics in 1962 in the National Heart Institute (now the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute), where he remained a laboratory chief until his death. He was married in 1961 to Perola Zaltzman, a chemist from the University of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, who also worked at NIH and died in 2001. Nirenberg married Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2005. He had four stepchildren: Susan Weissman of Evanston, Illinois, Judith Weissman of New York, New York, Sharon Weissman of New Haven, Connecticut, and Jonathan Weissman of San Francisco, California.

Nirenberg was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1964 and the National Medal of Honor in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2001. He died on January 15, 2010, from cancer after several months of illness.

See also[link]

• History of RNA biology
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• List of RNA biologists
• Heinrich Matthaei

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Voet, Donald and Judith G. Voet. 1995. Biochemistry 2nd ed. John Wilely & Sons, New York.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Profiles in Science: The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers."

Further reading[link]

• Nobel Biography
• Marshall Nirenberg Papers (1937–2003) – National Library of Medicine finding aid
• The Marshall Nirenberg Papers – Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine
• Free to View Video Interview with Marshall W. Nirenberg provided by the Vega Science Trust.
• The Life and Scientific Work of Marshall W. Nirenberg. (From Richard Olson & Roger Smith (eds.) The Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. 1998.)
• The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
• Ed Regis (November 2007), "The Forgotten Code Cracker" (print), Scientific American (Scientific American, Inc.): pp. 50–51, "(subtitle) In the 1960's Marshall W. Nirenberg deciphered the genetic code, the combination of A, T, G and C nucleotides that specify amino acids. So why do people think that Francis Crick did it?" 

Marshall Goldsmith
Born	(1949-03-20) March 20, 1949 (age 63) Valley Station, Kentucky
Alma mater	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Indiana University, Kelley School of Business UCLA Anderson School of Management
Occupation	Author Professor Executive Educator Coach
Spouse	Dr Lyda Goldsmith
Authority control: PND: 173366155 | VIAF: 79568365
Website
marshallgoldsmith.com

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

Marshall Goldsmith (March 20, 1949) is an American author of management-related literature.^[1] Born in Valley Station, Kentucky, he received his BS from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, his MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business (from which he received the 2009 Distinguished Entrepreneur Award), and his PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1977 (where he was recognized in 2010 as one of the school's 100 most inspirational alumni over the past 75 years).^[2] From 1976-1980 he was Assistant Professor and then Associate Dean at Loyola Marymount University’s College of Business. He currently teaches executive education at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, and he frequently speaks at leading business schools.

Professional history[link]

In 1977, he met Dr. Paul Hersey, a consultant in leadership development, and began teaching managers. He was later co-founder of Keilty, Goldsmith and Company and is a partner in Marshall Goldsmith's company.

Goldsmith was a pioneer in the use of customized 360-degree feedback (confidential feedback from direct reports, peers and managers) as a leadership development tool. His early efforts in providing feedback and then following-up with executives to measure changes in behavior were precursors to what eventually evolved as the field of ‘executive coaching.’ In acknowledgment of his work in helping leaders change behavior, he received his first national recognition in 1993, being ranked as one of the top ten executive educators in the Wall Street Journal.

While serving as a board member of the Peter Drucker Foundation in 1996, Goldsmith co-edited his first book, The Leader of the Future (with Frances Hesselbein and Richard Beckhard). Peter Drucker wrote the foreword for this book. This book has since sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been translated into 28 languages. It is perhaps the most popular edited book on leadership ever written. The success of this first book led Goldsmith (with Frances Hesselbein and the Drucker Foundation, which became the Leader to Leader Institute) to co-edit six more books, which have been extremely well received in their field.

Goldsmith's work in helping successful leaders achieve positive lasting change in behavior has been featured in a The New Yorker profile, Harvard Business Review interview, Forbes feature story and Business Strategy Review cover story (from the London Business School). He is one of the few executive advisors who has been asked to work with more than 120 major CEOs and their management teams. In 2011 Dr. Goldsmith was named winner of the prestigious 2011 Thinkers50 Leadership Award (the definitive listing of the world’s top thinkers created by Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer) – as the World’s Most Influential Leadership Thinker, additionally ranking #7 on the overall list of Thinkers50 world’s top 50 business thinkers. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources – and recognized in Business Week as one of the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development. In 2004 he was recognized by the American Management Association as one of 50 great thinkers and business leaders who have impacted the field of management over the past 80 years.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, was named winner of the prestigious 2011 Thinkers50 Leadership Award (the definitive listing of the world’s top thinkers created by Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer) – as the World’s Most Influential Leadership Thinker, additionally ranking #7 on the overall list of Thinkers50 world’s top 50 business thinkers.

Goldsmith is the author or co-editor of 31 books, including What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 Business Book and winner of the Harold Longman Award as Best Business Book of the Year). Harvard Business School has recommended six of his books in their Working Knowledge series. Almost all of Dr. Goldsmith's articles, interviews, columns and videos are available for viewing and sharing online (free of charge) at the Marshall Goldsmith Library. By the end of 2010, visitors representing 195 countries had viewed, listened to, or downloaded more than 5.6 million articles, columns, interviews, webinars, audios, videos and resource pages from this site.

Several themes run through Goldsmith’s writings:

• The same beliefs that lead to our success – can make it very difficult for us to change behavior – and, as difficult as it is to change our own behavior, it is even more difficult to change others’ perception of our behavior.
• The behavior of leaders needs to be reflective of the stated values of the corporation – and key executives need to ‘go first’ in modeling positive behavioral change.
• Managers who receive feedback and engage in ongoing follow-up with co-workers will almost always achieve positive, change in behavior and be seen as more effective leaders by their key stakeholders. This was shown in a Strategy+Business article that involved over 86,000 respondents. (In 2010 this article, "Leadership Is a Contact Sport," was recognized as one of the greatest articles ever published in Strategy+Business.)
• The key to success in executive coaching is not the coach (who is a facilitator of change) – it is the people being coached and their key stakeholders.
• Leadership development should provide tools that can be used in a positive, simple, focused and fast manner. Complex theories of change, while interesting, will not work in the ‘real world’ with over-extended executives.
• Most executive education has historically been based upon an invalid assumption, “If they understand – they will do.” The basic challenge faced by managers is not understanding the practice of leadership – it is practicing their understanding of leadership.

Professional recognition[link]

Along with the American Management Association and National Academy of Human Resources, Goldsmith’s work has been recognized by almost every professional organization in his field, including the:

• Academy of Management,
• Thinkers50 2011 (#1 leadership thinker in the world and the #7 business thinker in the world),
• Best Practice Institute,
• Human Resource Planning Society,
• American Society for Training and Development,
• Institute for Management Studies (where in 2009 he became the second recipient of the IMS Lifetime Achievement Award), and
• Leader to Leader Institute (where in 2010 he became the fifth recipient of the Leader of the Future Award).

Major press acknowledgments[link]

• The Times - 15 Greatest Business Thinkers in the World
• BusinessWeek - 50 Great Leaders in America
• Wall Street Journal - Top Ten Executive Educators
• Forbes - Five Most-Respected Executive Coaches
• Leadership Excellence - Top 5 Leadership Thinkers
• The Economic Times (India) - Top CEO Coaches of America
• Economist (United Kingdom) - Most Credible Executive Advisors in the New Era of Business
• Fast Company - America's Preeminent Executive Coach

Volunteer work[link]

• Volunteer Teacher for US Army Generals, US Navy Admirals, Girl Scout and International Red Cross Executives^{[citation needed]}
• National Volunteer of the Year for American Red Cross^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Marshall Goldsmith lives with his wife, Dr. Lyda Goldsmith, in Rancho Santa Fe, California.^[1] He has two children, Bryan Goldsmith and Dr. Kelly Goldsmith.^[1] Kelly was a contestant on the third season of the hit CBS show Survivor, which took place in Africa that season. She then received her Ph.D. from Yale University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Bryan is working in the family business with his father.

Bibliography[link]

• MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back If You Lose It^[3]
• The AMA handbook of leadership^[4]
• Learn Like a Leader: Today's Top Leaders Share Their Learning Journeys^[5]
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There in Sales. Marshall Goldsmith, Don Brown, Bill Hawkins, GBH Press (2010)
• Best Practices in Talent Management. Marshall Goldsmith and Louis L. Carter (eds.), Jossey Bass and Best Practice Institute (2010)
• MOJOTweet. Marshall Goldsmith, ThinkAha (2010)
• Succession: Are You Ready? Marshall Goldsmith, Harvard Business Press (2009) (Wall Street Journal best-seller)
• The Organization of the Future – 2. Frances Hesselbein and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.), Jossey-Bass (2009) (American Library Association Choice Award Academic Business Book of the Year)
• What Got You Here – Won’t Get You There. Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, Hyperion (2007) (New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book, and Harold Longman Award Winner Best Business Book of the Year, translated into 28 languages and a listed best-seller in 7 countries)
• The Leader of the Future – 2. Frances Hesselbein and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.), Wiley (2006)
• Coaching for Leadership: The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the World’s Greatest Coaches. Marshall Goldsmith and Laurence Lyons (eds.), Pfeiffer (2005)
• The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Coaches Reveal their Secrets. Howard Morgan, Phil Harkins and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.), Wiley (2005)
• Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organizational Change. Louis Carter, David Ulrich and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.), Wiley (2005)
• Leading Organizational Learning. Marshall Goldsmith, Howard Morgan and Alexander Ogg (eds.), Jossey-Bass (2004)
• Global Leadership: The Next Generation. Marshall Goldsmith, Alastair Robertson, Cathy Greenberg, Maya Hu-Chan. FT Prentice Hall (2003)
• Human Resources in the 21st Century. Marc Effron, Robert Gandossy and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.) Wiley (2003)
• Partnering: The New Face of Leadership. Larraine Segil, Marshall Goldsmith and James Belasco (eds.) AMACOM (2003)
• The Change Champion's Fieldguide: Strategies and Tools for Leading Change in Your Organization. Dave Ulrich, Marshall Goldsmith, Louis Carter, Jim Bolt, Norm Smallwood (eds.), Best Practice Institute (2003)
• The Many Facets of Leadership. Marshall Goldsmith, Vijay Govindarajan, Beverly Kaye and Albert Vicere (eds.) FT Prentice Hall (2002)
• Leading Authorities on Business: Winning Strategies from the Greatest Minds. Marshall Goldsmith and James Belasco (eds.) Leading Authorities Press (2002)
• Leading for Innovation: & Organizing for Results. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Iain Somerville (eds.) Jossey-Bass (2002)
• Best Practices in Organization Development and Change Handbook: Culture, Leadership, Retention, Performance, and Consulting. Louis Carter, David Giber and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.) Jossey-Bass; Book and CD-ROM edition (2001)
• The Leadership Investment: How the World’s Best Organizations Gain Strategic Advantage Through Leadership Development. Robert Fulmer and Marshall Goldsmith. AMACOM (2001) (American Library Association Choice Award Academic Business Book of the Year)
• Coaching for Leadership: How the World’s Greatest Coaches Help Leaders Learn. Marshall Goldsmith, Laurence Lyons and Alyssa Freas (eds.) Jossey-Bass (2000)
• Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders. Marshall Goldsmith, Beverly Kaye and Ken Shelton (eds.) Davies-Black (2000)
• Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices in Leadership Development Handbook: Case Studies, Instruments and Training. Louis Carter, David Giber, and Marshall Goldsmith (eds.). Jossey-Bass (2000)
• Leading Beyond the Walls: Wisdom to Action Series Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Iain Somerville (eds.) Jossey-Bass (1999)
• The Community of the Future. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard and Richard Schubert (eds.). Jossey-Bass (1998)
• The Organization of the Future. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard (eds.) Jossey-Bass (1997)
• The Leader of the Future. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard (eds.). Jossey-Bass (1996) (BusinessWeek best-seller)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Marshall Goldsmith’s personal site