Tsien, Roger Y.

▪ American chemist

born Feb. 1, 1952, New York, N.Y., U.S.

      American chemist who was a corecipient, with Osamu Shimomura (Shimomura, Osamu) and Martin Chalfie (Chalfie, Martin), of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They were honoured for their work in the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), used as a tool to make visible the actions of certain cells. Tsien received one-third of the prize for his expansion of the GFP's available colour palette.

      Tsien attended Harvard University before receiving a Ph.D. in physiology from Cambridge University in 1977. He remained at Cambridge as a researcher until 1981, when he left for the University of California, Berkeley, and an eventual professorship there. In 1989 he became a professor at the University of California in San Diego. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Tsien received numerous honours, and in 1998 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

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