Caltech Chemist Honored
<i> From staff and wire reports</i>
Physical chemist Norman R. Davidson of Caltech last week was named the winner of the 1989 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry. The award, which carries a $225,000 prize, is considered one of the most prestigious in chemistry.
Davidson used the techniques of physical chemistry to devise new ways to visualize, isolate, and manipulate segments of DNA, the genetic blueprint of life. In particular, he and his students devised a technique for attaching labels to individual chemicals in DNA so they could be viewed under a microscope. This and other techniques he developed made possible many of the recent achievements of genetic engineering.
Davidson, 73, has been at Caltech since 1946.
