Hershey, Alfred

[person]

(December 4, 1908 - May 22, 1997) An American bacteriologist and geneticist. His most famous contribution to science was the Hershey-Chase blender experiment, which he and Martha Chase performed, the results of which supported the idea that genetic material is made up of DNA, not protein. In 1962, Hershey was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with two other researchers) for work on the genetic structure and replication of viruses.