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{{Short description|scientistAmerican whomicrobiologist correctly proposed the existence of Archaea and horizontal gene transfer(1928–2012)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Carl WoeseRichard Wösenkraft
|image = Carl Woese.jpg
|image_size =
|caption = Woese in 2004
|birth_date = {{birth date|1928|07|15}}
|birth_place = [[Syracuse, New York]], U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|2012|12|30|1928|07|15}}
|death_place = [[Urbana, Illinois]], U.S.
|citizenship = [[United States]]
|ethnicity =
|field = [[Microbiology]]
|work_institutions = [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]
|alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|[[Amherst College]]|[[Yale University]]}}
| thesis_title = Physical Studies on Animal viruses
| thesis_url = http://search.proquest.com/docview/302030453/
| thesis_year = 1953
|doctoral_advisor = [[Ernest C. Pollard]]{{citation<ref needed|datename=July 2016}}"pnas2012"/>
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students = [[David Stahl (biologist)|David Stahl]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mcb.illinois.edu/departments/microbiology/downloads/history_of_microbiology_at_illinois.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://mcb.illinois.edu/departments/microbiology/downloads/history_of_microbiology_at_illinois.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=History of the Department of Microbiology |publisher=University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignUrbana–Champaign |date=2015-06-01 |access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref>
|known_for = Discovery of [[Archaea]]
|influences =
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|signature =
}}
'''Carl Richard Woese''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|oʊ|z}};<ref name="sayhow">{{Citecite web | editor-last = Hagen (ed.) | editor-first = Ray | title = Say How? A Pronunciation Guide to Names of Public Figures | work = National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped | date = August 2012 | url = https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/organization/standards-guidelines/uvwx/#w }}</ref> July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012) was an American [[microbiologist]] and [[biophysicist]]. Woese is famous for defining the [[Archaea]] (a new [[domain (biology)|domain]] of life) in 1977 bythrough a pioneering [[phylogenetic]] [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]] of [[16S ribosomal RNA]], a technique hethat pioneered thathas revolutionized microbiology.<ref name="Woese_1990">{{cite journal | last1 = Woese | first1 = Carl R.| author-link1 = Carl Woese | last2 = Kandler | first2 = O | last3 = Wheelis | first3= M | title = Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya | journal = Proc Natl Acad Sci USA | volume = 87 | issue = 12 | pages = 4576–9 | year = 1990 | pmid = 2112744 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.87.12.4576 | pmc = 54159 | bibcode=1990PNAS...87.4576W| author2-link = Otto Kandler| doi-access = free}}</ref><ref name="woese1978">{{cite journal | last1 = Woese | first1 = C.R.| author-link1 = Carl Woese | last2 = Magrum | first2 = L.J. | last3 = Fox | first3 = G.E.| author-link3 = George E. Fox | title = Archaebacteria | journal = J Mol Evol | volume = 11 | issue = 3 | pages = 245–51 | year = 1978 | pmid = 691075 | doi = 10.1007/BF01734485| bibcode = 1978JMolE..11..245W | s2cid = 260611975}}</ref><ref name="woese1977">{{cite journal | issn = 0027-8424| volume = 74| issue = 11| pages = 5088–5090| last1 = Woese| first1 = C. R.| author-link1 = Carl Woese| author2 = G. E. Fox| author-link2 = George E. Fox| title = Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| date = 1977-11-01| pmid = 270744 | pmc = 432104| doi = 10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088| bibcode = 1977PNAS...74.5088W| doi-access = free}}{{open access}}</ref><ref name="morell1997"/> He also originated the [[RNA world hypothesis]] in 1967, although not by that name.<ref name="woese1967">{{Cite book | publisher = Harper & Row | last = Woese | first = Carl | title = The Genetic Code: the Molecular basis for Genetic Expression | location = New York | year = 1967 | author-link = Carl Woese}}</ref> Woese held the [[Stanley O. Ikenberry]] Chair and was professor of microbiology at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]].<ref name="natureobit">{{Cite journal | last1 = Noller | first1 = H. | author-link = Harry F. Noller| title = Carl Woese (1928–2012) Discoverer of life's third domain, the Archaea| doi = 10.1038/493610a | journal = Nature | volume = 493 | issue = 7434 | pagespage = 610 | year = 2013 | pmid = 23364736|bibcode = 2013Natur.493..610N | s2cid = 205076152 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Goldenfeld | first1 = N.
| last2 = Pace | first2 = N. R.
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| volume = 339
| issue = 6120
| pagespage = 661
| year = 2013
| pmid = 23393257
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|title = U. of I. microbiologist Carl Woese elected to Royal Society
|access-date = 2009-03-02
|work = News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
|date = 2006-05-19
|url-status = dead
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==Life and education==
Carl WoeseRichard Wösenkraft was born in Syracuse, New York on July 15, 1928. His family was [[German American]]. Woese attended [[Deerfield Academy]] in [[Massachusetts]]. He received a bachelor's degree in [[mathematics]] and [[physics]] from [[Amherst College]] in 1950. During his time at Amherst, Woese took only one biology course ([[Biochemistry]], in his senior year) and had "no scientific interest in plants and animals" until advised by [[William M. Fairbank]], then an assistant professor of physics at Amherst, to pursue [[biophysics]] at [[Yale]].<ref name="woese2005qa">{{Cite journal | last1 = Woese | first1 = C. R. | author-link = Carl Woese| title = Q & A | doi = 10.1016/j.cub.2005.02.003 | journal = Current Biology | volume = 15 | issue = 4 | pages = R111–R112 | year = 2005 | pmid = 15723774| s2cid = 45434594 | doi-access = free }}</ref>
 
In 1953, he completed a [[Ph.D.PhD]] in [[biophysics]] at [[Yale University]], where his doctoral research focused on the inactivation of [[virus]]es by heat and [[ionizing radiation]].<ref name=mcb>{{cite web |url=http://mcb.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/1204 |title=Carl R Woese, Professor of Microbiology |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |access-date=February 16, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213210457/http://mcb.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/1204 |archive-date=February 13, 2010 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name="sapp2009"/> He studied medicine at the [[University of Rochester]] for two years, quitting two days into a [[pediatrics]] rotation.<ref name="sapp2009">{{Cite book
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| isbn = 978-0-199-73438-2
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| doi=10.2307/3570863
| bibcode = 1960RadR...13..871W| jstor = 3570863
}}</ref> From 1960–631960 to 1963, he worked as a biophysicist at the [[General Electric Research Laboratory]] in [[Schenectady, New York]].<ref name=mcb /><ref name=newsgazette>{{cite web
|url=http://www.news-gazette.com/news/university-illinois/2012-12-30/visionary-ui-biologist-carl-woese-84-dies.html
|title=Visionary UI biologist Carl Woese, 84, dies
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|work=The News-Gazette: Serving East Central Illinois
|date=2012-12-30
|archive-date=February 16, 2013
}}</ref> In 1964, Woese joined the microbiology faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he focused on Archaea, genomics, and molecular evolution as his areas of expertise.<ref name="uofi2006"/><ref name=mcb /><ref name=newsgazette /> He became a professor at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]'s [[Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology]], which was renamed in his honor in 2015, after his death.<ref name=newsgazette />▼
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216170841/http://www.news-gazette.com/news/university-illinois/2012-12-30/visionary-ui-biologist-carl-woese-84-dies.html
|url-status=dead
▲}}</ref> In 1964, Woese joined the microbiology faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he focused on Archaea, genomics, and [[molecular evolution]] as his areas of expertise.<ref name="uofi2006"/><ref name=mcb /><ref name=newsgazette /> He became a professor at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]'s [[Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology]], which was renamed in his honor in 2015, after his death.<ref name=newsgazette />
 
Woese died on December 30, 2012, following complications from [[pancreatic cancer]], leaving as survivors his wife Gabriella and a son and daughter.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/carl-woese-dies-evolutionary-biologist-was-84/2013/01/19/a91a051c-61e9-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html |title=Carl Woese dies; evolutionary biologist was 84 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2013-01-19 |accessdate=2022-02-16}}</ref> <ref name="uofiigb2012">{{cite web
|url = http://www.igb.illinois.edu/news/carl-r-woese-1928-%E2%80%93-2012
|title = Carl R. Woese: 1928 – 2012
|access-date = 2012-12-30
|work = News, The Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUrbana–Champaign
|date = 2012-12-30
|url-status = dead
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|bibcode = 1961Natur.190..697W | s2cid = 4221490 }}</ref> Other work established the mechanistic basis of protein translation, but in Woese's view, largely overlooked the genetic code's evolutionary origins as an afterthought.<ref name="pnas2012"/>
 
In 1962, Woese spent several months as a visiting researcher at the [[Pasteur Institute]] in [[Paris, France|Paris]], a locus of intense activity on the molecular biology of gene expression and gene regulation.<ref name="sapp2009"/> While in Paris, he met [[Sol Spiegelman]], who invited Woese to visit the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois]] after hearing his research goals; at this visit Spiegelman offered Woese a position with immediate [[tenure]] beginning in the fall of 1964.<ref name="sapp2009"/> With the freedom to patiently pursue more speculative threads of inquiry outside the mainstream of biological research, Woese began to consider the genetic code in evolutionary terms, asking how the codon assignments and their translation into an amino acid sequence might have evolved.<ref name="sapp2009"/><ref name="woese1964">{{Cite journal | last1 = Woese | first1 = C. R. | author-link1 = Carl Woese| last2 = Hinegardner | first2 = R. T. | last3 = Engelberg | first3 = J. | doi = 10.1126/science.144.3621.1030 | title = Universality in the Genetic Code | journal = Science | volume = 144 | issue = 3621 | pages = 1030–1031 | year = 1964 | pmid = 14137944|bibcode = 1964Sci...144.1030W | doi-access = free }}</ref>
 
=== Discovery of the third domain ===
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Woese's work on Archaea is also significant in its implications for the search for life on other planets. Before the discovery by Woese and Fox, scientists thought that Archaea were extreme organisms that evolved from the microorganisms more familiar to us. Now, most believe they are ancient, and may have robust evolutionary connections to the first organisms on Earth.<ref>{{Cite journal| title = Archaeal phylogenomics provides evidence in support of a methanogenic origin of the Archaea and a thaumarchaeal origin for the eukaryotes| doi = 10.1098/rspb.2010.1427| volume = 278| issue = 1708| pages = 1009–1018| last = Kelly| first = S.|author2=B. Wickstead |author3=K. Gull | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences| date = 2010-09-29 | pmid=20880885 | pmc=3049024}}</ref> Organisms similar to those archaea that exist in extreme environments may have developed on other planets, some of which harbor conditions conducive to [[extremophile]] life.<ref name="stetter2006">{{Cite journal| title = Hyperthermophiles in the history of life| doi = 10.1098/rstb.2006.1907| volume = 361| issue = 1474| pages = 1837–1843| last = Stetter| first = Karl O. | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences| date = 2006-10-29| pmc = 1664684| pmid=17008222}}</ref>
 
Notably, Woese's elucidation of the [[Tree of life (biology)|tree of life]] shows the overwhelming diversity of microbial lineages: single-celled organisms represent the vast majority of the biosphere's genetic, metabolic, and ecologic niche diversity.<ref name=woese2006prok>{{Cite book | last1 = Woese | first1 = C. R. | chapter = How We Do, Don’t and Should Look at Bacteria and Bacteriology | title = The Prokaryotes | pages = 3–4 | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-387-25476-0 | doi = 10.1007/0-387-30741-9_1}}</ref> As microbes are crucial for many [[biogeochemical cycle]] cycless and to the continued function of the biosphere, Woese's efforts to clarify the evolution and diversity of microbes provided an invaluable service to [[ecologists]] and [[conservationists]]. It was a major contribution to the theory of [[evolution]] and to our knowledge of the history of life.<ref name=pnas2012>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1120749109 | issn = 1091-6490 | volume = 109 | issue = 4 | pages = 1019–1021 | last = Nair | first = Prashant | title = Woese and Fox: Life, rearranged | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | date = 2012-01-17 | bibcode= 2012PNAS..109.1019N | pmid=22308527 | pmc=3268309| doi-access = free }}</ref>
 
Woese wrote, "My evolutionary concerns center on the bacteria and the archaea, whose evolutions cover most of the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. Using ribosomal RNA sequence as an evolutionary measure, my laboratory has reconstructed the phylogeny of both groups, and thereby provided a phylogenetically valid system of classification for prokaryotes. The discovery of the archaea was in fact a product of these studies".<ref name=mcb />
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| bibcode = 2002PNAS...99.8742W
| doi-access = free
}}</ref> First described by Woese and Fox in a 1977 paper and explored further with microbiologist [[Jane Gibson]] in a 1980 paper, these organisms, or ''[[Progenote|progenotes]]'', were imagined as protocells with very low complexity due to their error-prone translation apparatus ("noisy genetic transmission channel"), which produced high mutation rates that limited the specificity of cellular interaction and the size of the genome.<ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Woese | first1 = C. R.
| last2 = Fox | first2 = G. E.
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== Honors and scientific legacy ==
Woese was a [[MacArthur Fellowship|MacArthur Fellow]] in 1984, was made a member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] in 1988, received the [[Leeuwenhoek Medal]] (microbiology's highest honor) in 1992, the [[Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology]] in 1995 from the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]],<ref name=Waksman>{{cite web|title=Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_waksman|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=2011-02-27|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110112174319/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_waksman|archive-date=January 12, 2011|df=mdy-all}}</ref> and was a [[National Medal of Science]] recipient in 2000. In 2003, he received the [[Crafoord Prize]] from the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] "for his discovery of a third domain of life".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/carl-woese-and-new-perspectives-on-evolution/ |title=Carl Woese and New Perspectives on Evolution |last=Morrison |first=David |date=December 10, 2003 |work=Astrobiology: Life in the Universe |publisher=NASA |access-date=February 16, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100224074131/http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/carl-woese-and-new-perspectives-on-evolution |archive-date=February 24, 2010 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name="crafoord2003">{{Citecite web | last = Huss | first = Erik | title = The Crafoord Prize 2003 – Crafoordprize | work = The Crafoord Prize | format = Press Release | access-date = 2013-01-03 | date = 2003-02-12 | url = http://www.crafoordprize.se/press/arkivpressreleases/thecrafoordprize2003.5.32d4db7210df50fec2d800018585.html | archive-date = October 31, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201031171837/https://www.crafoordprize.se/press/arkivpressreleases/thecrafoordprize2003.5.32d4db7210df50fec2d800018585.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 2004.<ref>{{Citecite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Carl+R.+Woese&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-06-09|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> In 2006, he was made a [[foreign member of the Royal Society]].<ref name="uofi2006"/>
 
Many microbial species, such as ''[[Pyrococcus woesei]]'',<ref name="Zillig1987">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0723-2020(87)80057-7 |title=Pyrococcus woesei, sp. Nov., an ultra-thermophilic marine archaebacterium, representing a novel order, Thermococcales |year=1987 |last1=Zillig |first1=Wolfram |last2=Holz |first2=Ingelore |last3=Klenk |first3=Hans-Peter |last4=Trent |first4=Jonathan |last5=Wunderl |first5=Simon |last6=Janekovic |first6=Davorin |last7=Imsel |first7=Erwin |last8=Haas |first8=Birgit |journal=Systematic and Applied Microbiology |volume=9 |issue=1–2 |pages=62–70}}</ref> ''[[Methanobrevibacter woesei]]'',<ref name="Miller2002">{{cite journal |doi=10.1099/ijs.0.02022-0 |title=Description of ''Methanobrevibacter gottschalkii'' sp. nov., ''Methanobrevibacter thaueri'' sp. nov., ''Methanobrevibacter woesei'' sp. nov. And ''Methanobrevibacter wolinii'' sp. nov |year=2002 |last1=Miller |first1=T. L. |journal=International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=819–822|pmid=12054244 }}</ref> and ''Conexibacter woesei'',<ref name="conexibacter">{{cite journal |doi=10.1099/ijs.0.02400-0 |title=''Conexibacter woesei'' gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel representative of a deep evolutionary line of descent within the class Actinobacteria |year=2003 |last1=Monciardini |first1=P. |journal=International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=569–576 |pmid=12710628|doi-access=free }}</ref> are named in his honor.
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}}
 
===Selected Articlesarticles===
* {{Cite journal
| title = Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms
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==References==
{{Reflistreflist}}
 
==External links==
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[[Category:National Medal of Science laureates]]
[[Category:People from Syracuse, New York]]
[[Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–ChampaignUrbana-Champaign faculty]]
[[Category:Leeuwenhoek Medal winners]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer]]
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[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois]]
[[Category:History of genetics]]
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