David Mervyn Blow
| David Mervyn Blow | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 June 1931 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 8 June 2004 (aged 72) Appledore, North Devon, England |
| Nationality |  United Kingdom |
| Fields | Biophysicist |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Haemoglobin X-ray crystallography |
David Mervyn Blow FRS[1] (27 June 1931 – 8 June 2004) was an influential British biophysicist. He was best known for the development of X-ray crystallography, a technique used to determine the molecular structures of tens of thousands of biological molecules. This has been extremely important to the pharmaceutical industry.[2]
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Early life and education [edit]
Blow was born in Birmingham, England. As a youth, he attended Kingswood School in Bath, England, where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Career [edit]
Following graduation from Cambridge, Blow spent two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In 1954, he met Max Perutz;[3] they began to study a new technique wherein X-rays would be passed through a protein sample. This eventually led to the creation of a three-dimensional structure of haemoglobin.
In 1972, Blow became a fellow of the Royal Society.
Blow became professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977.
Personal life [edit]
Blow married Mavis Sears in 1955, and they had two children.
Blow died of lung cancer at the age of 72, in Appledore, England.
References [edit]
- ^ Henderson, R.; Franks, N. P. (2009). "David Mervyn Blow. 27 June 1931 -- 8 June 2004". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 55: 13. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0022.
- ^ Vrielink, A. (2005). "David Mervyn Blow". Physics Today 58 (3): 88. doi:10.1063/1.1897573.
- ^ Blow, D. M. (2004). "Max Ferdinand Perutz OM CH CBE. 19 May 1914 - 6 February 2002: Elected F.R.S. 1954". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 50: 227–256. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0016. JSTOR 4140521. PMID 15768489.
External links [edit]
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- 1931 births
- 2004 deaths
- Academics of Imperial College London
- Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
- British academics
- British scientists
- Cancer deaths in England
- Deaths from lung cancer
- English biophysicists
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Members of the French Academy of Sciences
- People educated at Kingswood School, Bath
- People from Birmingham, West Midlands
- Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates
