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John Cornforth
Chemist

John Cornforth

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Explaining the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions.

Enzyme reactions · Cholesterol biosynthesis

Born
7 September 1917
Birthplace
Sydney
Died
8 December 2013

More people

Marie CurieDiscovering polonium and radium.Albert EinsteinDeveloping the theory of relativity.Charles DarwinExplaining evolution through natural selection.

John Cornforth

John Cornforth was an Australian-British chemist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Early life

Education

Studied chemistry at Sydney and Oxford; progressive hearing loss left him deaf as a young adult.

Career

  1. 1941

    Doctorate

    Completed his Oxford doctorate.

  2. 1946

    Medical Research Council

    Joined the National Institute for Medical Research.

  3. 1975

    Nobel Prize

    Shared the chemistry award with Vladimir Prelog.

Contributions

Enzyme reactions

Traced the positions of hydrogen atoms during biochemical transformations.

Cholesterol biosynthesis

Helped explain how cholesterol is made.

Beyond research

Family and collaboration

Married fellow chemist Rita Harradence, a long-standing research collaborator.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Additional biographical source ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Unknown (Associated Press). Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.