Sir Hans Leo Kornberg, FRS (14 January 1928 – 16 December 2019) was a British-American

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 ...

. He was Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry in the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

from 1975 to 1995, and Master of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

from 1982 to 1995.

Early life and education

Kornberg was born in 1928 in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

parents, Max Kornberg (1889–1943) and Margarete (née Silberbach, 1890-1928), who died three weeks after his birth. In 1939, his father and stepmother Selma (née Nathan; 1886–1943) got him out of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

(though they could not follow), first to an uncle in Amsterdam and eventually to the care of an uncle in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. A few years later, his father and stepmother were murdered in

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Initially he went to a school for German

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

, but later to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield. On leaving school he became a junior laboratory technician for Hans Adolf Krebs at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

who encouraged him to study further and apply for a scholarship at the same university. He graduated with a BSc Honours in

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

in 1949. His interest moved to

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

and he studied in the Faculty of Medicine, receiving a PhD degree in 1953 on the studies on

urease Ureases (), functionally, belong to the superfamily of amidohydrolases and phosphotriesterases. Ureases are found in numerous Bacteria, Archaea, fungi, algae, plants, and some invertebrates. Ureases are nickel-containing metalloenzymes of high ...

in mammalian gastric mucosa.

Career

After receiving Commonwealth Fund Fellowship and working for two years in

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and Public Health Research Institute in USA, he then returned to the UK where his mentor, Sir Hans Krebs, had moved to

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and offered him a post there. This partnership produced a paper in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', concerning their discovery of the

glyoxylate cycle The glyoxylate cycle, a variation of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, is an anabolic pathway occurring in plants, bacteria, protists, and fungi. The glyoxylate cycle centers on the conversion of acetyl-CoA to succinate for the synthesis of carbohy ...

, and also a joint book entitled ''Energy Transformations in Living Matter'' in 1957. In 1960, he was appointed to the first Chair in Biochemistry at the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

, which he held until 1975. Later, he was elected as Sir William Dunn Chair of Biochemistry at the

. Hans became a lecturer at

Worcester College Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

between 1958 and 1961, and was also the first person to receive The Biochemical Society's annual Colworth Medal on 1963. He received Christ's Fellowship in 1975 and was elected as the 34th Master of the

from 1982 to 1995. In 1995, he retired to take up a position as a Professor of Biology at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, USA, where he taught biochemistry.

Honours and awards

He was elected to the

Fellowship A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...

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 1965 and the same year awarded the Colworth Medal of The Biochemical Society. In 1973, he was awarded the Otto Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours List he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

for "services to science". He has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates and has been elected into membership of: *The

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

*The German Academy of Sciences "Leopoldina" *The Italian National Academy of Sciences "Lincei" *The

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

*The

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

*The American Society of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology *The Japanese Biochemical Society *

Phi Beta Kappa Society The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and Honorary Fellowship of *The Biochemical Society (UK) *The Royal Society of Biology *Brasenose College (Oxford) *Worcester College (Oxford) *Wolfson College (Cambridge) *The Foulkes Foundation (London)

Personal life

While at Oxford, he met and married his first wife, Monica King, in 1956 and had four children: Julia, Rachel, Jonathan and Simon. The children were raised Catholic. Monica died in 1989. In 1991, he married a Jewish woman, Donna Haber. Sir Hans Kornberg died on 16 December 2019.

References

External links

British Humanist Society Distinguished Supporters
* Jewish Year Book, 2005, p. 214: List of Jewish Fellows of the

Professor Sir Hans Kornberg FRS in Conversation with Sir James Baddiley FRS October 1990
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070818211720/http://www.bu.edu/uni/faculty/profiles/kornberg.html Sir Hans Kornberg (Boston University Biology Department) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kornberg, Hans 1928 births 2019 deaths Sir William Dunn Professors of Biochemistry Academics of the University of Leicester Alumni of the University of Sheffield Boston University faculty English biochemists English emigrants to the United States English humanists English people of German-Jewish descent Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Jewish chemists Knights Bachelor Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield People from Herford Presidents of the British Science Association Presidents of the Association for Science Education Presidents of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International members of the American Philosophical Society