Biophysicist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Shared 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for knowledge of the structure and function of the ribosome — the intracellular machine that builds proteins from instructions carried by RNA. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1940. The oldest of five children, Steitz has admitted to being an average student in high school, until motivated to compete against his youngest brother who was getting better grades. Steitz was a keen musician and chorister, and considered a career in music before finally choosing to pursue science.
