Some of the Major Scientists
in the Field:
Christoph Adami (Artificial life)
Gustaf Arrhenius (Surface-active mineral sorption in nucleic
acid formation)
Jeffrey L. Bada (Sources, stability, and composition of early
organic material)
Andr Brack (Metallic ions in peptide prebiotic chemistry along
with other studies in the molecular origins of life)
A. Graham Cairns-Smith (Clay matrix models of prelife
scaffolding)
Melvin Calvin (Carbon dioxide assimilation in plants)
Thomas R. Cech and Sidney Altman (Ribozymes and the
catalytic nature of RNA)
Francis Crick (DNA and "directed panspermia")
Russell Doolittle (Evolution of proteins)
Christian de Duve (Structural and functional organization of the
cell; two books and much research on life origins)
Freeman Dyson (Metabolism first model)
Manfred Eigen (In vitro nucleotide polymerization, mutation, and
selection)
Albert Eschenmoser (Multiple origin-of-life contributions)
James P. Ferris (Prebiotic chemical evolution and Editor of OLEB)
Hyman Hartman (Evolution of photosynthetic metabolic
pathways)
Sir Frederick Hoyle (Astrobiology and panspermia)
Throughout his distinguished life and inspirational career
astronomer, mathematician and writer Sir Frederick Hoyle, who died on 20 August,
2001
aged 86, courted controversy with his contradictory views and theories.
He coined the phrase “big bang”, yet rejected the theory of
a spontaneous
explosion as an explanation for the beginning of the universe. “Every cluster of
galaxies, every star, every atom had
a beginning, but the universe itself did
not,” he said.- obit.
Hoyle
Gerald Joyce (Biochemistry of RNA enzymes)
Stuart Kauffman (NK models and complexity theory)
Bernd-Olaf Kppers (Information theory and the origin of life)
Christopher G. Langton (Artificial life)
Lynn Margulis (Mitochondrial evolution)
Stanley Miller (Biomolecule self-assembly)
Harold J. Morowitz (Condensation of amphiphilic molecules to
form vesicles)
Leslie Orgel ("Directed panspermia" and lifetime of origin-of-life
research)
Guy Ourisson (Cell membranes and evolution; Pres. French
Academy of Sciences)
Juan Or (Prebiotic formation of adenine)
Ilya Prigogine (Dissipative structures and self-ordering tendencies)
Prigogine
P. Schimmel (Genetic Code)
Robert Shapiro (DNA research and objective analysis of
origin-of-life problems)
Jack Szostak (Oligonucleotide and RNA research)
Charles H. Townes (Biophysics)
Craig Ventor (gene sequencing, synthesis of life)
Carl R. Woese (Bacterial classification and evolution)
Hubert P. Yockey (Information theory and molecular biology)