Kary B. Mullis was an American biochemist, author, and lecturer who won a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993, for his role in the improvement of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. He was also awarded the Japan Prize the same year. His contribution to the PCR technique helped to make the technique a central one in biochemistry and molecular biology. An outspoken individual, he invited much criticism for his defense of AIDS denialism and climate change denial, and his unorthodox views on social sciences. Born into a family with a farming background, he was raised in a rural area and grew up observing the farm animals and other organisms. He became interested in chemistry as a young boy and proceeded to earn a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. After getting his PhD degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, he became a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric cardiology at the University of Kansas Medical School and then completed two years of postdoctoral work in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. He tried his hands at different occupations before joining Cetus Corporation in California as a DNA chemist. It was here that he performed his breakthrough work that led to his improvement of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.