Quotes by and about Yale’s Nobel Prize Winner Thomas Steitz

Quotes about Yale researcher, Thomas Steitz, winning the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Yale University President Richard Levin:

“He is a towering figure in the field of structural biology.”

“Tom Steitz has a rare family. His wife Joan is one of the leading scientists at Yale as well…She is someone we hope will someday get the same recognition Tom received today.”

Thomas A. Steitz:

On investigating the ribosome:

“It seemed a little like climbing Mount Everest. We knew it was doable in principle but we did not know if we would ever get there.”

On remembering Frederic Richards, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, who hired Steitz in 1970:

“I remember Fred Richards and am so sorry he died in January and could not share in this, because so much of the credit belongs to Fred.”

On his first view of the atomic structure of the ribosome:

“It was the most exhilarating moment I have experienced in science, to peer into the inner workings of the ribosome.”

Peter Moore, Sterling professor of chemistry at Yale and longtime collaborator of Tom Steitz:

“Today is a special day for me not only because I had the good fortune to work with Tom Steitz on the ribosome, which is the most exciting science I ever had anything to do with, but also because Venki Ramakrishan, who is sharing the prize with Tom, was a post doctoral student in my laboratory 30 years ago. It is good to see one’s “children” doing well.”