George Palade entered the science of cell biology at a time when techniques such as electron microscopy and sedimentation of discrete bits of cell structure were beginning to reveal the minute structure of the cell. He not only advanced these techniques, but also, by investigating the ultrastructure or fine structure of animal cells, identified and described the function of mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell and of ribosomes as the site of protein manufacture. For his research in the function and structure of such cell components, he shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two other cell researchers, Albert Claude and Christian R. Duvé.

George Emil Palade was born on November 19, 1912, in Jassy, in northeastern Romania. One of three children, Palade came from a professional family--his father, Emil, was a philosophy professor at the University of Jassy, while his mother, Constanta Cantemir, taught elementary...