Richard Axel
Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won him and Linda Buck, a former postdoctoral research scientist in his group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004.
Richard Axel
July 2, 1946
- Richard Lounsbery Award (1989)
- Perl-UNC Prize (2002)
- Gairdner Foundation International Award (2003)
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2004)
Education and early life[edit]
Born in New York City to Polish Jewish immigrants, Axel grew up in Brooklyn.[1] He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1963,[2] (along with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alexander Rosenberg), received his B.A. in 1967 from Columbia University, and his M.D. in 1971 from Johns Hopkins University. However, he was poorly suited to medicine and graduated on the promise to his department chairman that he would not practice clinically.[3] He found his calling in research and returned to Columbia later that year, eventually becoming a full professor in 1978.
Personal life[edit]
Axel is married to fellow scientist and olfaction pioneer Cornelia Bargmann.[17] Previously, he had been married to Ann Axel, who is a social worker at Columbia University Medical Center. Owing to his tall stature, Axel played basketball during high school.[17]