BIOLOGIST

Carl Woese

1928 - 2012

Photo of Carl Woese

Icon of person Carl Woese

Carl Richard Woese ( WOHZ; July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012) was an American microbiologist and biophysicist. Woese is famous for defining the Archaea (a new domain of life) in 1977 through a pioneering phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique that has revolutionized microbiology. He also originated the RNA world hypothesis in 1967, although not by that name. Woese held the Stanley O. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Carl Woese has received more than 608,591 page views. His biography is available in 35 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 33 in 2019). Carl Woese is the 116th most popular biologist (up from 132nd in 2019), the 1,090th most popular biography from United States (up from 1,342nd in 2019) and the 19th most popular American Biologist.

Carl Woese is most famous for his discovery of the third domain of life, Archaea.

Memorability Metrics

  • 610k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.05

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 35

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.70

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.50

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Carl Woese ranks 116 out of 1,097. Before him are Georg Forster, Alfred Hershey, John Gurdon, Aimé Bonpland, Hans Christian Gram, and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard. After him are Edward B. Lewis, Johann Friedrich Gmelin, Sydney Brenner, Har Gobind Khorana, Macfarlane Burnet, and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1928, Carl Woese ranks 59. Before him are Karlheinz Böhm, Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Geert Hofstede, Li Peng, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Elliott Erwitt. After him are Jacques Rivette, Hardy Krüger, Giampiero Boniperti, Gene Sharp, Joe Jackson, and Musa al-Sadr. Among people deceased in 2012, Carl Woese ranks 43. Before him are Benzion Netanyahu, Lucio Dalla, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Sergey Sokolov, Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, and E. Donnall Thomas. After him are Erland Josephson, Andrew Huxley, Stephen Covey, Rauf Denktaş, F. Sherwood Rowland, and George Armitage Miller.

Others Born in 1928

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Others Deceased in 2012

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Carl Woese ranks 1,090 out of 20,380. Before him are Janet Yellen (1946), Mike Pence (1959), Harvey J. Alter (1935), Wesley Snipes (1962), David Soul (1943), and E. Donnall Thomas (1920). After him are Edward B. Lewis (1918), Betty Ford (1918), Jon Bon Jovi (1962), Brendan Fraser (1968), Arthur Ashe (1943), and Joanne Woodward (1930).

Others born in United States

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Among BIOLOGISTS In United States

Among biologists born in United States, Carl Woese ranks 19. Before him are Lynn Margulis (1938), John Franklin Enders (1897), Nettie Stevens (1861), Thomas Huckle Weller (1915), Edward Tatum (1909), and Alfred Hershey (1908). After him are Edward B. Lewis (1918), E. O. Wilson (1929), Gerald Edelman (1929), Hamilton O. Smith (1931), J. Michael Bishop (1936), and George Davis Snell (1903).

American born Biologists

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