In 1989, Thomas Cech from the University of Colorado in Boulder was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Sidney Altman for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA.

Cech was raised in Des Moines, and attended Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. Cech joined the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1978. Cech served as president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2000-2008 where he promoted science education. Today, Cech remains on the faculty at the University of Colorado as Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.