This is a list of biochemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of biochemistry. Their research or applications have made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied biochemistry.
David Agard. American Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at
UC San Francisco, whose research is focussed on understanding the basic principles of macromolecular structure and function. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Robert Alberty (1921–2014). American physical biochemist at
MIT, noted for many contributions to enzyme kinetics, including early studies of reactions with two substrates. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Bruce Ames (b. 1928). Biochemist and microbiologist at
UC Berkeley. He is an expert on mutagenicity and an inventor of the Ames test. Awarded the
National Medal of Science
John E. Amoore (1939–1998). British biochemist and zoologist at
UC Berkeley, who postulated the stereochemical theory of
olfaction.
Frances Arnold (b. 1956). American biochemist and biochemical engineer at
Caltech, pioneer of the use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes. Nobel Prize for Chemistry (2018). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Helen Asemota. Nigerian biochemist at the
University of the West Indies, Jamaica, who studied the molecular genetics and metabolism of the browning of yam tubers in storage.
Gilbert Ashwell (1916–2014). American biochemist at the
NIH, who isolated the first cell receptor.
David Baker (b. 1962). American biochemist and computational biologist at the
University of Washington, who studies methods to predict and design the three-dimensional structures of proteins.
Clinton Ballou (1923–2021). American biochemist at
UC Berkeley, whose research focused on the metabolism of carbohydrates and the structures of microbial cell walls. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Philip A. Beachy (b. 1958). American biochemist at
Stanford, known for studies to understand the molecular mechanisms behind the growth of multicellular embryos, especially the role of the Hedgehog signalling pathway. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Steven A. Benner (b. 1954). American chemist at the
University of Florida known for establishing synthetic biology and paleogenetics, aas wll as contributing to understanding of the origin of life;
Paul BergFRS (foreign member) (1926–2023). American biochemist at
Stanford, known for pioneering work involving gene splicing of recombinant DNA. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980.
Helen M. Berman (b. 1943). American biochemist at
Rutgers University, known for work on nucleic acids, their interactions with proteins, and also the structure of collagen.
Claude Bernard (1813–1878). French physiologist and physician (early biochemist) at the
Collège de France, Paris. Introduced concept of
homeostasis (given that name by
Walter Cannon). Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Klaus Biemann (1926–2016). Austrian chemist at
MIT, the "father of organic mass spectrometry" and particularly noted for his role in advancing protein sequencing with tandem mass spectrometry. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Konrad Emil BlochFRS (1912–2000). German-American biochemist at
Harvard, who worked on the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1964.
Elkan Blout (1919–2006). American biochemist at
Harvard, who worked on peptide structure and conformation, including cyclic peptides. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Herman Branson (1914–1995). American physicist and biochemist who participated at
Caltech in the discovery of the α-helix
Sydney Brenner (1927–2019). South African biochemist at
Cambridge, and later Berkeley, known for work on the genetic code and more recently for establishing Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism. Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine (2002)
Kenneth Breslauer (active from 1970). American biochemist at
Rutgers University (born in Sweden of German parents), who has studied DNA damage and repair, including why certain mutations escape repair and result in cancer.
Bernard Brodie (1907–1989). American biochemist and pharmacologist at the
National Heart Institute, regarded as the founder of modern pharmacology. He studied drug metabolism and the mechanisms of drug effects. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Adrian John BrownFRS (1852–1920). British expert on brewing and malting at the
University of Birmingham. He was a pioneer of enzyme kinetics and proposed an explanation of enzyme saturation.
Patrick O. Brown (b. 1954). American biochemist at
Stanford. Among numerous advances in experimental techniques he has developed experimental methods for using DNA microarrays to investigate the basic principles of genome organization. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Thomas Bruice (1925–2019). American bioorganic chemist at
UC Santa Barbara, pioneering researcher in chemical biology. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Eduard Buchner (1860–1917). German chemist and physiologist at the
University of Munich, who overthrew the doctrine of vitalism by showing that cell-free yeast extract could catalyse fermentation, a discovery described by
Arthur Kornberg as the beginning of biochemistry. 1907
Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Dean Burk (1904–1988). American biochemist at the
Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, co-discoverer of
biotin. He is credited (with
Hans Lineweaver) with introducing the double-reciprocal plot in kinetics. He became a vociferous opponent of water fluoridation.
Carlos Bustamante (b. 1951). Peruvian-American biophysicist at
UC Berkeley. Known for single-molecule studies, including the use of optical tweezers for measuring the forces that maintain biological structures. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
David E. Cane (b. 1944). American biological chemist at
Brown University, recognized for his work on the biosynthesis of natural products, particularly terpenoids and polyketides.
John Carbon. American cellular biologist at
UC Santa Barbara, known for development of techniques for making genome libraries. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Michael Chamberlin (b. 1937). American molecular biologist at
UC Berkeley, with research focussed on gene expression in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Christopher Chang (b. 1974). American bioinorganic chemist at
UC Berkeley. His research includes molecular imaging sensors for the study of redox biology.
Jean-Pierre Changeux (b. 1936). French biochemist and neuroscientist at the
Collège de France and
Institut Pasteur. Originator of the allosteric model of cooperativity, but now known mainly for work in neuroscience.
Emmett Chappelle (1925–2019). American biochemist at
NASA, known for using bioluminescence to develop a method of detecting ATP.
Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002). Austrian-American biochemist at
Columbia, known for
Chargaff's rules, according to the first of which the number of guanine units in DNA is equal to the number of cytosine units, and the number of adenine units is equal to the number of thymine units.
Aaron Ciechanover (b. 1947). Israeli biochemist at the
Technion, Haifa, known for work on protein turnover. Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004. Foreign associate
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Jane Clarke (b. 1950). Biochemist at
Cambridge known for work on folding and assembly of proteins.
Steven Clarke (b. 1949). American biochemist at
UCLA, known for work on molecular damage and molecular repair mechanisms.
Edwin Joseph Cohn (1892–1953). American protein chemist at
Harvard, known for studies on blood and the physical chemistry of protein. Author, with
John Edsall of Proteins, Amino Acids and Peptides, a very influential book. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Mildred Cohn (1913–2009). American biochemist, at the
University of Pennsylvania, pioneer in the use of nuclear magnetic resonance to study enzyme reactions.
Athel Cornish-Bowden (b. 1943). British enzymologist at the
CNRS, Marseilles. He has contributed to the development of metabolic control analysis, and is the author of Fundamentals of Enzyme Kinetics.
Nicholas R. Cozzarelli (1938–2006). American biochemist at
UC Berkeley, and former editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Gerald Crabtree (b. 1946). American biochemist at
Stanford, known for defining the Ca2+-calcineurin-NFAT signalling pathway, pioneering the development of synthetic ligands for regulation of biological processes.
Richard D. Cummings. American biologist at
Harvard, known for studying pathways of glycoconjugate biosynthesis and alterations in biosynthesis in human and animal diseases.
Marie Maynard Daly (1921–2003). American biochemist at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who studied the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, the relationships between cholesterol and hypertension, and uptake of creatine by muscle cells.
Keith DalzielFRS (1921–1994). British biochemist at
Oxford University, pioneer in analysis of the kinetics of two-substrate enzyme-catalysed reactions.
Jean Dausset (1916–2009). French immunologist at
INSERM who worked on the major histocompatibility complex. Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (1980). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Member of the French Academy of Science
Michael W. Deem. American biochemist and genetic engineer at Rice University, known for work in evolution, immunology, and materials.
William DeGrado (b. 1955). American pharmaceutical chemist at
UC San Francisco, known for protein design, synthesis of peptidomimetics, and characterizing membrane-active peptides and proteins. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Pierre De Meyts (b. 1944). Belgian physician and biochemist at the
Université Catholique de Louvain, known for studies of hormone-receptor interaction of peptide hormones and the physiopathogenesis of diabetes.
Willey Glover Denis (1879–1929). American biochemist at
Tulane University, a pioneer in clinical chemistry and the measurement of protein in biological fluids.
Malcolm DixonFRS (1899–1985). British biochemist at the
University of Cambridge. Research on enzyme structure, kinetics, and properties. His book (with Edwin C. Webb) Enzymes was very influential.
Ralph Dorfman (1911–1985). American biochemist at
Stanford, known for treatments for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis
Jennifer Doudna (b. 1964). American biochemist at
UC Berkeley, known for CRISPR-mediated genome editing. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2020.
Alexander Dounce (1909–1997). American protein chemist at the
University of Rochester, active in early work on the genetic code, one of the first to suggest that it was triplet-based.
Conrad Elvehjem (1901–1962). American biochemist and nutritionist at the
University of Wisconsin, known for identifying two vitamins, nicotinic acid, and nicotinamide.
Lars Ernster (1920–1998; original name Ernster László). Swedish biochemist at Stockholm, of Hungarian origin. Member of the Board of the Nobel Foundation (1977–1988). Known for work on mitochondria and energy transduction. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Earl Evans (1910–1999). American biochemist at the
University of Chicago known for developing techniques in radiobiology and other fields.
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Fa–Fi
Leone N. Farrell (1904–1986). Canadian biochemist and microbiologist at
Connaught Laboratories (Toronto) who discovered a way to isolate live virus in bulk quantities, sufficient for producing the polio vaccine.
David Fell (b. 1947). British biochemist at
Oxford Brookes University who has contributed to the development of systems biology. Author of Understanding the control of metabolism.
Otto Folin (1867–1934). Swedish-American chemist at
Harvard, best known for developing methods for the determination of the constituents of protein-free blood filtrates. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Karl August Folkers (1906–1997). American biochemist at
Merck, known for work on the antibiotics cathomycin and cycloserine.
Ivar Asbjørn Følling (1888–1973). Norwegian biochemist and geneticist who first described phenylketonuria.
Sidney W. Fox (1912–1998). American biochemist at the
University of Miami who worked on the production of amino acids in abiotic conditions.
Joseph S. Fruton (1912–2007). Polish-American biochemist at the
Rockefeller Institute. He worked on proteases, but is best known for his influential book General Biochemistry, written with his wife
Sofia Simmonds, and for later work on the history of biochemistry. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Frederick Griffith (1877–1941). British bacteriologist, at the Ministry of Health's Pathological Laboratory, who discovered that DNA carries hereditary information.
F. Peter Guengerich (b. 1949). Biochemist and toxicologist at
Vanderbilt University, working on cytochromes P450, DNA damage and carcinogenesis, and drug metabolism. Note. His personal Wikipedia page is very uninformative.
Herbert GutfreundFRS (1921–2021). Austrian-British biochemist at
Bristol, known for enzyme kinetics and for developing methods for studying fast reactions.
J. B. S. Haldane (John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, 1892–1964). British (and later Indian) geneticist, biochemist (study of enzymes) and statistician, at
University College London and at the end of his life at the
Indian Statistical Institute. Apart from his contributions to science, he was notable for political activism and wrote many articles for the Daily Worker.
Philip Handler (1917–1981). American nutritionist and biochemist, noted for the understanding of nicotinic acid deficiency and the discovery of the tryptophan-nicotinic acid relationship. He was at
Duke University until he became President of the
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Arthur HardenFRS (1865–1940). British biochemist at the
Lister Institute, known for work on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1929).
Max Henius (1859–1935). Danish-American biochemist who specialized in fermentation processes. Founder of the Chicago-based American Brewing Academy.
Victor Henri (1872–1940). French physical chemist of Russian parents at the
University of Liège. He was the first to apply ideas of physical chemistry to the properties of enzymes.
Avram Hershko (b. 1937 as Herskó Ferenc). Hungarian-Israeli biochemist at the
Technion (Haifa), known for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004). Foreign associate
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Hi–Hu
Archibald Vivian HillFRS (1886–1977). British protein biophysicist at
University College London known primarily for work in muscle biochemistry, but also for the
Hill equation, still widely used for quantifying protein cooperativity. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922).
Dorothy HodgkinFRS (1910–1994). British X-ray crystallographer at the
University of Oxford, pioneer in protein crystallography. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1964)
Harvey Itano (1920–2010). American biochemist at
UC San Diego, best known for work on the molecular basis of sickle cell anaemia. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
William JencksFRS (foreign member) (1927–2007). American biochemist at
Brandeis University, known for applying chemical mechanisms to enzyme-catalysed reactions and for his masterly book Catalysis in Chemistry and Enzymology. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Thomas H. Jukes (1906–1999). British-American biologist at
UC Berkeley known for work in nutrition and molecular evolution. He was very active in denouncing pseudoscience.
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Ka–Ke
Henrik KacserFRSE (1918–1995). British geneticist and biochemist at
Edinburgh, founder of metabolic control analysis.
Douglas Kell (b. 1953). British biochemist at the
University of Manchester, known for research on functional genomics, metabolomics and the yeast genome.
Judith Klinman (b. 1941). American chemist, biochemist, and molecular biologist at
UC Berkeley, known for her work on enzyme catalysis. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Sylvy Kornberg (1917–1986). American biochemist at
Stanford, who worked in collaboration with
Arthur Kornberg on DNA replication and polyphosphate synthesis.
Thomas B. Kornberg (b. 1948). American biochemist at
UC San Francisco, who works on Drosophila melanogaster development.
Douglas Koshland (b. 1953). Molecular and cellular biologist at
UC Berkeley.
Edwin Gerhard Krebs (1918–2009) was an American biochemist at the
University of Washington, Seattle, and Nobel prizewinner, known for the study of phosphorylation/hydrolysis cycling.
Sir
Hans Adolf KrebsFRS (1900–1981). British biochemist at
Sheffield and
Oxford, known for many advances in metabolism, most notably the tricarboxylate ("Krebs") cycle. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1953).
Marc Lacroix (b. 1963). Belgian biochemist at the
Institut Jules Bordet (Brussels), who specializes in breast cancer biology, metastasis and therapy.
Keith Laidler (1916–2003). British-Canadian chemist and biochemist at the
University of Ottawa. Expert on chemical and enzyme kinetics. Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Michel Lazdunski (b. 1938). French biochemist and neuroscientist at
Sophia Antipolis. Known especially for work on ion channels. Full Member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Albert L. Lehninger (1917–1986). American biochemist at the
University of Wisconsin. He discovered, with
Eugene P. Kennedy, that mitochondria are the site of oxidative phosphorylation in eukaryotes. Author of several influential texts, including The Mitochondrion, Bioenergetics and Biochemistry. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Luis Federico LeloirFRS (foreign associate) (1906–1987). Argentinian biochemist at the
Fundación Instituto Campomar (Buenos Aires) who worked on sugar nucleotides, carbohydrate metabolism, and renal hypertension. Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1970).
Justus von Liebig (1803–1873). German scientist at the
University of Giessen who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry; one of the founders of organic chemistry.
Anthony William LinnaneFRS (1930–2017). Australian biochemist at
Monash University, known for work on mitochondria, and in particular for the relationship between mitochondrial damage and aging. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
William Lipscomb Jr. (1919–2011). American inorganic and organic chemist at
Harvard, who worked on nuclear magnetic resonance, theoretical chemistry, boron chemistry, and biochemistry. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1976). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Feodor Felix Konrad LynenFRS (1911–1979). German biochemist at the
Max-Planck Institute for Cellular Chemistry (Munich), who worked on the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1964). Foreign associate
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
John MacleodFRS (1876–1935). British biochemist and physiologist at the
University of Toronto, discoverer of insulin. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1923).
Harden M. McConnell (1927–2014). American biochemist at
Stanford known for the technique of spin-labels, whereby electron and nuclear magnetic resonance can be used to study the structure and kinetics of proteins. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Maud Menten (1879–1960). Canadian biochemist at the
University of Pittsburgh who carried out early work on enzyme kinetics. Later she pioneered the use of
electrophoresis to study haemoglobin variants.
Otto Fritz MeyerhofFRS (foreign member) (1884–1951). German-American physician and biochemist at the
University of Pennsylvania, who pioneered the study of muscle biochemistry. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922).
Jacques MonodFRS (foreign member) (1910–1976). French biochemist and microbiologist at the
Pasteur Institute, known for many discoveries and for the theory of allostery. His philosophical book Chance and Necessity has been influential. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1965).
Kary Mullis (1944–2019). American biochemist at the
Cetus Corporation (Emeryville, California), inventor of the polymerase chain reaction. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1993).
Joseph NeedhamFRS (1900–1995). British biochemist at
Cambridge, historian and sinologist, noted for embryology and morphogenesis, and also in Chinese science.
Eva J. Neer (1937–2000). American physician and biochemist at
Harvard, who researched on G-protein
cell biology. Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Joe Neilands (1921–2008). Canadian-born American biochemist and political activist at
UC, Berkeley, known for studies of microbial iron transport, and as author, with
Paul K. Stumpf of Outlines of Enzyme Chemistry.
Michael Neuberger (1953–2013). British biochemist and immunologist at
Cambridge University known for delineating the role of DNA deamination in immunity.
Hermann Niemeyer (1918–1991). Chilean biochemist. National Prize of Science (Chile). Member of the Academy of Science of Chile.
Marshall Warren Nirenberg (1927–2010). American biochemist and geneticist at the
NIH, who showed that UUU codes for phenylalanine, the first step in deciphering the genetic code. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1968). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Roland Victor Norris (1888–1950). British biochemist at the
Indian Institute of Science, who worked on glycogen metabolism and yeast fermentation, and later pioneered biochemistry in India.
Alexander George OgstonFRS (1911–1996). British biochemist at
Oxford University, known for the three-point attachment explanation of how an achiral substance can have a chiral product in the tricarboxylate cycle.
Tsuneko Okazaki (b. 1933). Japanese molecular biologist at
Nagoya University, known for discovering
Okazaki fragments, an essential step for understanding DNA replication. L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.
Linus Pauling (1901–1994). American chemist and biochemist at
Caltech, known for many advances in chemistry, including the α-helical structure of proteins. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954).
Louis PasteurFRS (foreign associate) (1822–1895). French biologist, microbiologist and chemist at the
Pasteur Institute (Paris), who made many contributions to microbiology, stereochemistry and medicine, including the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (foreign associate).
Max PerutzFRS (1914–2002). Austrian-British molecular biologist and X-ray crystallographer at
Cambridge University, who solved the crystal structure of haemoglobin. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1962).
George RaddaFRS (b. 1936). Hungarian biochemist at
Oxford University, known for applying nuclear magnetic resonance to complex biological material, and many other contributions.
Samuel Mitja Rapoport (1912–2004). Austrian and German biochemist at the
Humboldt University, Berlin noted for studies of mitochondria, and for discovering a method for preserving blood for transfusions. Leader of biochemistry in the German Democratic Republic. Member of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin.
Lynne Regan (Ph.D. 1987). British biochemist and biotechnologist at the
University of Edinburgh which studies interactions between proteins and nucleic acids.
Jens Reich (b. 1939). German biophysicist at the Central Institute of Molecular Biology of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Buch, pioneer in systems biology. Founder of the
New Forum (civil rights movement).
Sinaida Rosenthal (1932–1988). German biochemist and molecular biologist at the
Humboldt University of Berlin who studied molecular biological and genetic aspects of physiology.
Oliver SmithiesFRS (foreign associate) (1925–2017). British-American geneticist and physical biochemist at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who introduced starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007.
Alberto Sols (1917–1989). Spanish biochemist at the
Spanish National Research Council. Known for studies of hexokinase, and metabolic regulation in general. Member of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina.
Marjory StephensonFRS (one of the first two women elected) (1885-1948). British biochemist and microbiologist at
Cambridge University, most widely remembered for her seminal book, Bacterial Metabolism.
Lubert Stryer (b. 1938). American biophysicist at
Stanford who pioneered the use of fluorescence spectroscopy, particularly Förster resonance energy transfer, to monitor the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules. He is best known for his textbook Biochemistry. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986). Hungarian biochemist at
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the first to isolate vitamin C. He discovered the components and reactions of the tricarboxylate cycle. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Herbert Tabor (1918–2020). American biochemist at
NIH who studied the function of polyamines and their role in human health and disease. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry for nearly 40 years. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Chen-Lu Tsou (Zou Chenglu in Pinyin, 1923–2006). Chinese biochemist at the
Academia Sinica, known for work on enzyme inactivation kinetics, and even more as the "face of Chinese biochemistry" for many years in the west. Member of the Academia Sinica.
Donald Van Slyke (1883–1971). Dutch American biochemist at the
Brookhaven National Laboratory noted for the measurement of gas and electrolyte levels in tissues. A unit of measurement for buffering activity, the slyke, is named after him. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Selman Waksman (1888–1973). Ukrainian-American biochemist at
Rutgers University, known for discovering streptomycin and other antibiotics. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1952).
Christopher T. Walsh (1944–2023). American biochemist at
Harvard, known for work on enzymes and enzyme inhibition, and especially for his book Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Xiaodong Wang, (b. 1963), Chinese-American biochemist at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Peking, known for his work with cytochrome c. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Arieh Warshel (b. 1940). Israeli-American biochemist and biophysicist at the
University of Southern California, a pioneer in computational studies on functional properties of biological molecules. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Hans Westerhoff (b. 1953). Dutch biochemist at the Universities of
Amsterdam and of
Manchester, known for work in systems biology and metabolic regulation.
Frank Henry Westheimer (1912–2007). American chemist at
Harvard who did pioneering work in physical organic chemistry, applying techniques from physical to organic chemistry and integrating the two fields. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
William Joseph WhelanFRS (1924–2021). British-American biochemist at the
University of Miami, who worked on the structure of glycogen, and discovered the protein
glycogenin at its core. He was very active in the creation of international organizations, including the IUB (now
IUBMB) and
FEBS.
Maurice WilkinsFRS (1916–2004). New Zealand and British x-ray crystallographer at
King's College London, whose work on DNA played an essential part in recognizing its double-helical structure. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962).
Robert Joseph Paton WilliamsFRS (1926–2015). British bioinorganic chemist at
Oxford University, with many contributions to understanding the role of metals in biological systems. Foreign Member of the Swedish, Portuguese, Czechoslovakian and Belgian science academies.
Allan Charles WilsonFRS (1934–1991). New Zealand biochemist and evolutionary biologist at
UC Berkeley, a pioneer in molecular approaches to understand evolutionary change and reconstruct phylogenies.
Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882). German chemist at the
University of Giessen, known for his synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate (a nail in the coffin of vitalism). Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Ada Yonath (b. 1939). Israeli crystallographer at the
Weizmann Institute of Science, best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009). Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Donald Zilversmit (1919–2010). Dutch-American nutritional biochemist at
Cornell, with many contributions to the understanding of the relationship between diet and cardiovascular disease. Member
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.