--- description: Nobel prize-winning biochemist Har Gobind Khorana is being honored with Google Doodle on January 9. title: Har Gobind Khorana: Google Celebrates Nobel-Prize Winner image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt731b01e0d5b99245/6988f787cf40a8025ec4adc8/har-gobind-khoranas-96th-birthday-4731112378073088-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google Celebrates Nobel-Prize Winning Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana by [Jennifer Calfas](/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:03 PM CUTPublished: Jan 9, 2018 1:39 PM CUT  Har Gobind Khorana Google Doodle Har Gobind Khorana Google DoodleRohan Dahotre / Google by [Jennifer Calfas](/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:03 PM CUTPublished: Jan 9, 2018 1:39 PM CUT Indian-American biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, known for his construction of the first synthetic gene and renowned research in nucleic acids and proteins, is being honored with a Google Doodle Tuesday, on what would have been Khorana’s 96th birthday. Khorana’s work uncovered how a DNA’s genetic code determines protein synthesis — which dictates how a cell functions. That discovery earned khorana, along with two colleagues, the [1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine](https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/medicine/laureates/1968/ "undefined") “for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.” Several years later, Khorana created the first synthetic gene — a step that led to commercialized gene synthesis at businesses around the world.  (Original Caption) Nobel Prize Winners. Stockholm: The 1968 Nobel Prize recipients, five Americans and one Japanese where judged to have "most benefited mankind" in the past year. They appear here at the awards ceremony. Left to right: Professor H. Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley, Professor Luis W. Alvarez, Dr. Marshall W. Nirenberg, Lars Onsager and Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. Bettmann—Bettmann Archive Created by Bangalore-based illustrator Rohan Dahotre, [Tuesday’s Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/har-gobind-khoranas-96th-birthday "undefined") features Khorana conducting research. Born in 1922 as the youngest of five children in a rural village that is now part of eastern Pakistan, Khorana learned to read and write with help from his father, according to the [Nobel Prize’s biography](https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/medicine/laureates/1968/khorana-bio.html "undefined") of the biochemist. With a number of scholarships, Khorana went on to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1948\. He conducted his Nobel Prize-winning research on nucleotides at the University of Wisconsin, and he later became the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He died in 2011. > [](https://twitter.com/UWMadScience/status/950829911408857090) > [](https://twitter.com/MIT/status/950790558666100742) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/"},"headline":"Google Celebrates Nobel-Prize Winning Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana","datePublished":"2018-01-09T13:39:25.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:03:37.000Z","description":"He would have turned 96 years old today","url":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/","keywords":["Tech","Google","Google Doodle","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt731b01e0d5b99245/6988f787cf40a8025ec4adc8/har-gobind-khoranas-96th-birthday-4731112378073088-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt731b01e0d5b99245/6988f787cf40a8025ec4adc8/har-gobind-khoranas-96th-birthday-4731112378073088-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"har-gobind-khoranas-96th-birthday-4731112378073088-2x","caption":"Har Gobind Khorana Google Doodle","creditText":"Rohan Dahotre / Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/","name":"Google Celebrates Nobel-Prize Winning Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5094695/google-doodle-har-gobind-khorana/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```