Christian B. Anfinsen (1916-1995)
Monessen, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Noted biochemist, born in Monessen. Recipient, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1972 for his pioneering study into the structure of the enzyme called " ribonuclease." A laboratory chief, National Institutes of Health, 1950-1982; he taught at Johns Hopkins University after 1982.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
The steel town of Monessen produced more than iron and glass — it gave the world a Nobel laureate. Christian B. Anfinsen, born here in 1916, became a biochemist whose work on the enzyme ribonuclease helped reveal how a protein's chain of amino acids alone determines its folded, functional shape. That insight, honored with the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, came during decades leading a laboratory at the National Institutes of Health before he turned to teaching at Johns Hopkins.
Why it matters
Anfinsen's discovery became a cornerstone of modern molecular biology, and his rise from a Pennsylvania mill town illustrates how postwar American science drew talent from every corner of the country.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Christian B. Anfinsen
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Brashear House
Brownsville, PA · est. 1946
John A. Brashear, born here in 1840, rose from a working life in the mills to become one of America's most celebrated makers of precision telescope lenses and mirrors, and a beloved educator. His grandfather ran the Brashear House, a leading tavern on the National Road through Brownsville. In 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette, touring the nation he had helped free, addressed the townspeople from its doorway.
Salk Polio Vaccine
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 2005
In the years after World War II, polio was one of America's most feared diseases, paralyzing thousands of children each summer. At the University of Pittsburgh's Virus Research Laboratory, a team led by Dr. Jonas Salk worked from 1948 to 1955 to develop the world's first effective polio vaccine, announcing their breakthrough to a jubilant nation on April 12, 1955. Mass inoculations of schoolchildren followed, and within a few years the disease had all but vanished from the United States.
Station WQED
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 1964
When WQED went on the air in April 1954, it became the first community-supported educational television station in the United States, funded by its Pittsburgh viewers rather than by advertisers. The following year it pioneered broadcasting lessons directly into elementary school classrooms. The station would go on to nurture landmark public programming, most famously nurturing the career of Fred Rogers.
James G. Blaine
West Brownsville, PA · est. 1947
James G. Blaine was born on this site in 1830 to a family of Pennsylvania pioneer stock and took his degree at nearby Washington College. Moving to Maine in 1854, he rose to become one of the towering political figures of the Gilded Age — a powerful member of Congress, a party leader, and twice secretary of state. He came within a hair of the presidency in one of the era's most bitterly fought campaigns.