Sydney Brenner
Brenner then focused on establishing Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of animal development including development of the nervous system. Brenner chose this 1 millimeter-long soil roundworm mainly because it is simple, is easy to grow in bulk populations, and turned out to be convenient for genetic analysis. For this work, he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. His Nobel lecture in December 2002, "Nature's gift to science" is a homage to this modest nematode. He considers chosing the right organism is as important as picking the right problems to work on. In recognition of his pioneering work on C. elegans, another closely related nematode was given the scientific name Caenorhabditis brenneri.