CHEMIST

Thomas Cech

1947 - Today

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Thomas Robert Cech (born December 8, 1947) is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but that it can act as a speed up the necessary reactions. He also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Thomas Cech has received more than 252,344 page views. His biography is available in 52 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 47 in 2019). Thomas Cech is the 309th most popular chemist (up from 345th in 2019), the 2,126th most popular biography from United States (up from 3,028th in 2019) and the 63rd most popular American Chemist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 250k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 57.44

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 52

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.88

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.79

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Thomas Cech ranks 309 out of 602. Before him are Leopold Gmelin, Kristian Birkeland, Rudolph A. Marcus, Max Joseph von Pettenkofer, Théophile-Jules Pelouze, and Yuan T. Lee. After him are Alexander Shulgin, J. D. Bernal, Alice Ball, William Prout, Torbern Bergman, and Frederick Abel.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1947, Thomas Cech ranks 141. Before him are Ry Cooder, Alexander Rutskoy, Oliver Dragojević, David Byron, H. Robert Horvitz, and Kevin Farrell. After him are Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Nevio Scala, Kathrine Switzer, Ted Danson, and Włodzimierz Lubański.

Others Born in 1947

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Thomas Cech ranks 2,126 out of 20,380. Before him are Joseph Greenberg (1915), Clair Cameron Patterson (1922), Cochise (1805), John Young (1930), Ricky Nelson (1940), and Bill Withers (1938). After him are Jim Parsons (1973), Jennifer Beals (1963), John Cusack (1966), Walt Whitman Rostow (1916), Andrea M. Ghez (1965), and Chris Pratt (1979).

Others born in United States

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Among CHEMISTS In United States

Among chemists born in United States, Thomas Cech ranks 63. Before him are Edwin G. Krebs (1918), Martin Rodbell (1925), Robert H. Grubbs (1942), Thomas Midgley Jr. (1889), Richard R. Schrock (1945), and Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (1915). After him are Alexander Shulgin (1925), Alice Ball (1892), William E. Moerner (1953), Louis E. Brus (1943), Frances Arnold (1956), and Roger Y. Tsien (1952).

American born Chemists

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