John C. Kendrew (1917-1997) was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry (with Max Perutz) in 1962 for his work in determining protein structures.

John Cowdery Kendrew was born in Oxford, England, on March 24, 1917, the son of Wilfred George and Evelyn May Graham (Sandberg) Kendrew. His father was a climatologist at the university; thus young Kendrew was raised in a highly enriched, scientific atmosphere. He trained as a physical chemist upon entering Cambridge, taking his B.A. from Trinity College in the spring of 1939. After graduation he considered switching to biology for further study, but without clear direction, and with the outbreak of World War II he joined the Air Ministry and worked on the application of airborne radar to the war effort and as a civilian scientist for the Royal Air Force. Kendrew worked for the RAF until 1945, first in England, then in the Middle East, and finally in...