Frederick Gowland Hopkins
(20 June 1861 – 16 May 1947) was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino acidtryptophan, in 1901. He was President of the Royal Society from 1930 to 1935.
(20 June 1861 – 16 May 1947) was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino acidtryptophan, in 1901. He was President of the Royal Society from 1930 to 1935.
Hopkins is credited with the discovery and characterization in 1921 of glutathione extracted from various animal tissues. At the time he proposed that the compound was a dipeptide of glutamic acid and cysteine. The structure was controversial for many years but in 1929 he concluded that it was a tripeptide of glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine. This conclusion agreed with that from the independent work of Edward Calvin Kendall.
During his life, in addition to the Nobel Prize, Hopkins was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1918 and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1926. Other significant honours were his election in 1905 to fellowship in the Royal Society, Great Britain’s most prestigious scientific organization; his knighthood by King George V in 1925; and the award in 1935 of the Order of Merit, Great Britain’s most exclusive civilian honor. From 1930 -1935 he served as president of the Royal Society and in 1933 served as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
He died on 16 May 1947 in Cambridge and is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with wife Lady Jessie Ann Hopkins.
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