What is Thomas Cech?
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2012}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Thomas Cech |image = Thomas Robert Cech.png |caption = Thomas Cech |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|12|8}} |birth_place = [[Chicago]] |death_date = |death_place = |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = |ethnicity = |field = |work_institutions = [[University of Colorado at Boulder|University of Colorado]], [[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]] |alma_mater = [[Grinnell College]] BA, [[University of California, Berkeley]] PhD [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = [[Ribozyme]] |influences = |influenced = |prizes = [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1989) |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''Thomas Robert Cech''' (born December 8, 1947 in [[Chicago]]) is an [[Americans|American]] [[chemist]] who shared the 1989 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with [[Sidney Altman]]. They discovered that [[RNA]] was a [[catalyst]]. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, which showed that life could have started as RNA.<ref>[http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/illpres/ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1989:] Illustrated Presentation</ref> == Career == Cech also studied [[telomere]]s, and his lab discovered an [[enzyme]], TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which helps to restore telomeres after they are shortened during [[cell division]].<ref>[http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/cech.html Telomeres, telomerase, and other noncoding RNAs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002033419/http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/cech.html |date=2012-10-02 }}, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, July 13, 2010</ref> As president of [[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]], he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the [[University of Colorado]]. He was elected a foreign member of the [[Academia Europaea]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cech_Thomas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/