Erwin chargaff biography genetics for kids

Biography

EUGENE M. MCCARTHY, PHD

Austro-Hungarian-born American biochemist and author.

Erwin chargaff biography genetics for kids

Discovered the key facts needed to determine the structure of DNA.

Erwin Chargaff was born in Chernivtsi, a provincial capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1905. At the outbreak of World War I, his family moved to Vienna, where he attended the Maximiliansgymnasium (now the Gymnasium Wasagasse).

He then went on to the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien) where he met his future wife Vera Broido and received a doctorate in chemistry in 1928.

After graduation he completed a one-year fellowship at Yale University before returning to Europe, where he became an assistant at the University of Berlin in 1930. Chargaff was, however, Jewish, and new Nazi policies, put in place when Hitler came to power in 1933, excluded Jews from academic positions.

As a result, he left Germany for F