Kary Banks Mullis (born December 28, 1944) is a Nobel Prize winning American biochemist, author, and lecturer. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and earned the Japan Prize in the same year.

The process was first described by Kjell Kleppe and 1968 Nobel laureate H. Gobind Khorana, and allows the amplification of specific DNA sequences.
Mullis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1966, during which time he got married and started a business.
He then received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972.
In 1983, Mullis was working for Cetus Corp. as a chemist.
In 1992, Mullis founded a business with the intent to sell pieces of jewelry containing the amplified DNA of deceased famous people like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Awards and honors:

1990 - William Allan Memorial Award of the American Society of Human Genetics | Preis Biochemische Analytik of the German Society of Clinical Chemistry and Boehringer Mannheim
1991 - National Biotechnology Award | Gairdner Award | R&D Scientist of the Year
1992 - California Scientist of the Year Award
1993 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry | Japan Prize | Thomas A. Edison Award
1994 - Honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of South Carolina
1998 - Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame Ronald H. Brown American Innovator Award
2004 - Honorary degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna, Italy
Mullis also received the John Scott Award in 1991, given by the City Trusts of Philadelphia to others including Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers.