John Warcup Cornforth received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1975 for his research on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. The prize was shared with Vladimir Prelog for his work on the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Stereochemistry is a branch of chemistry that deals with the shapes, or architecture, of molecules and the way their three-dimensional structure affects chemical properties.

The study of stereochemistry is considered vital to understanding the organic world at its most basic biochemical level. It has been called a "point of view" in chemistry, which shows how things fit together at the molecular level and how they affect such fundamental aspects of life as taste and smell. It has been specifically in this area of chemistry that Cornforth has made his contributions.

Cornforth was born in Sydney, Australia, on September 7, 1917, to J. W. Cornforth and Hilda Eipper Cornforth. His undergraduate work was completed...