Frederick Robert Whatley FRS (26 January 1924 – 14 November 2020) was an English

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

who held the title of

Sherardian Professor of Botany The Sherardian Chair of Botany is a professorship at the University of Oxford that was established in 1734. It was created following an endowment by William Sherard on his death in 1728. In his will, Sherard stipulated that the first holder of th ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1971 to 1991. In 1954, Whatley,

Mary Belle Allen Mary Belle Allen (November 11, 1922, Morristown, New Jersey –1973, Fairbanks, Alaska) was an American botanist, chemist, mycologist, algologist, and plant pathologist, and a pioneer of biochemical microbiology. With Daniel I. Arnon a ...

and Daniel Israel Arnon discovered

photophosphorylation In the process of photosynthesis, the phosphorylation of ADP to form ATP using the energy of sunlight is called photophosphorylation. Cyclic photophosphorylation occurs in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, driven by the main primary source of ...

''in vitro''. In 1967 he was nominated jointly (but unsuccessfully) with Allen and Arnon for a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

Early life and education

Whatley was born on 26 January 1924, and educated at

Bishop Wordsworth's School Bishop Wordsworth's School is a Church of England boys' grammar school in Salisbury, Wiltshire for boys aged 11 to 18. The school is regularly amongst the top-performing schools in England, and in 2010 was the school with the best results in the ...

, Whatley completed his BA and doctoral studies at

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (18 ...

, submitting a thesis titled "Enzyme Systems in the Green Leaf" in 1948. While no explicit mention of a supervisor was made, Dr R. Hill is thanked for his "helpful advice and criticism during the course of the work". It can be reasonably concluded that Dr R. Hill ( Robin Hill) played a supervisory role in Whatley's research, with Hill and Whatley going on to publish their paper "A natural factor catalyzing reduction of methaemoglobin by isolated chloroplasts" in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, in 1952.

Work

Noted for research in photosynthesis, his early career involved the methaemoglobin reducing factor, later known as

ferredoxin Ferredoxins (from Latin ''ferrum'': iron + redox, often abbreviated "fd") are iron–sulfur proteins that mediate electron transfer in a range of metabolic reactions. The term "ferredoxin" was coined by D.C. Wharton of the DuPont Co. and applied t ...

. He then worked with leaf mitochondria in Australia, with research involving

ATP synthesis ATP synthase is a protein that catalyzes the formation of the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). It is classified under ligases as it changes ADP by the formation o ...

. Whatley was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1975."Frederick Whatley"

The Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Retrieved on 25 September 2017.

Personal life and death

Whatley died in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

on 14 November 2020, at the age of 96.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whatley, Frederick 1924 births 2020 deaths People educated at Bishop Wordsworth's School Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge English biochemists English botanists English biologists Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society