1861-1947

English Biochemist

Frederick Gowland Hopkins won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his research on the chemistry of nutrition. Hopkins proved that, even if a diet was adequate in terms of total calories and protein content, small quantities of specific "accessory factors" were essential to health. The chemical studies of these dietary factors carried out by Hopkins and his co-workers stimulated the isolation and characterization of vitamins.

Hopkins was born in Eastbourne, England. His father, a bookseller in London, died when Hopkins was only an infant. His mother, Elizabeth Gowland Hopkins, gave him a microscope with which he studied marine life. As a child, however, Hopkins seemed more interested in poetry and literature than science. When Hopkins was 10 years old, he was sent to the City of London School, where his interest in science was stimulated and he received honors...