Daniel Nathans

Microbiologist, born in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. He studied at the University of Delaware and at Washington University, St Louis, and became professor at Johns Hopkins University from 1962. He pioneered research on the use of restriction enzymes which had been isolated by Hamilton Smith to fragment DNA molecules, and they shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Daniel Nathans (October 30, 1928 – November 16, 1999) was an American microbiologist.

He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the last of nine children born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. Nathans served as President of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1995 to 1996.

Along with Werner Arber and Hamilton Smith, Nathans received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978 for the discovery of restriction enzymes.He was also awarded with National Medal of Science in 1993.