Birthplace of Alred Day Hershey
Nobel Laureate Alfred Day Hershey (1908-1997) was born here in Owosso. He earned a B.S. in bacteriology and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. While on the faculty of Washington University, Hershey made discoveries in bacteriology, immunology, virology, and genetics. In 1943, Hershey, Max Delbrück, and Salvador Luria formed the core of the Phage Group ‒ a research network focused on viruses called bacteriophages.
In 1952, at the Carnegie Institution Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, Alfred Day Hershey, and his lab assistant Martha Chase performed the "Blender Experiments." They revealed that DNA is the genetic material of life. For that and other discoveries in virology and genetics, Hershey, Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria received the 1969 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and were credited as "The original founders of the modern science of molecular biology.”
site number: L2312
era: Post WWII (1945-1970)
year listed: 2018
year erected: 2019
