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For the second time in three days, a Stanford University professor was awakened in the middle of the night by a telephone call from Sweden informing him he was the recipient of a 2006 Nobel Prize.

Roger Kornberg of Atherton, a professor of structural biology, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Stanford's Andrew Fire won the Nobel Prize Monday for physiology or medicine.

"I'm simply stunned, there's no other words," Kornberg said.

And this time, the prize is also a family affair.

Kornberg's father, Arthur Kornberg of Portola Valley, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1959. The elder Kornberg is professor emeritus of biochemistry at Stanford's School of Medicine.

"I have felt for some time that he richly deserved it," Arthur Kornberg said of his son's prize. "His work has been awesome."

That work has been in understanding how DNA is changed into RNA, a process known as transcription.

His work included publication in 2001 of a "molecular snapshot" of the protein machinery responsible for the conversion of DNA into RNA. The transcription helps explain how cells express information in the human genome.

"Roger Kornberg is one of our nation's treasured scientists," said Dr. Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine. "He has dedicated his life and career to using the powerful tools of structural biology to elucidate the molecular mechanism of transcription." That work has contributed to the understanding of normal and abnormal human development, health and disease, he added.

Roger Kornberg received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard in 1967 and a doctorate degree in chemistry from Stanford in 1972.

He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, from 1972 to 1975 and joined Harvard University Medical School in 1976. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1978 as professor in the structural biology department, where he served as department chair from 1984 to 1992.

Now, the elder and younger Kornbergs have an overseas trip ahead.

"I'm looking forward to being in Stockholm, where we have many friends," Arthur Kornberg said, remembering his own awards ceremony 47 years ago. "They put on a great party."

— Don Kazak