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The nobel prize winning bacterologist Alfred Day Hershey was born in Owosso, Michigan, USA on December 4th 1908. Died 1997

• 1930: Received his B. S. in chemistry at Michigan State University
• 1934: Hershey recieved his Ph. D. in bacteriology at Michigan State University, and was given the position of research assistant at the Department of Bacteriology of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1936: Promoted to instructor.
• 1938: Promoted to assistant professor.
• 1940: Worked with Italian microbiologist Salvador Edward Luria and German physicist Max Ludwig Henning Delbruck performing experiments with bacteriophages.
• 1942: Promoted to associate professor.
• 1946: Hershey and Delbruck observed that when two different strains of bacteriophages have infected the same bacteria, the two viruses may exchange genetic information.
• 1950: Hershey moved to Cold Spring Harbor, New York to join the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics.
• 1952: Hershey and American geneticist Martha Chase performed their famous "blender experiment."
• 1953: Hershey and Chase published a paper containing the results form the "blender experiment" which provided more evidence that DNA is the genetic material, not protein.
• 1962: Hershey became director of the Carnegie Institution, renamed Genetic Research Unit at Cold Spring Harbor.
• 1969: Hershey was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, shared with Luria and Delbruck, for their discovery on the replication of viruses and their genetic structure.
• 1972: Hershey retired from active research, but maintained his presence as an active figure around the lab until his death in May in 1977.
• 1997: Died