Robin Hill (biochemist)

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Robin Hill
Robert Hill FRS
Born
Robert Hill

(1899-04-02)2 April 1899[3]
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Died15 March 1991(1991-03-15) (aged 91)
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materEmmanuel College, Cambridge
Known forHill reaction of Photosynthesis[4]
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
Notable studentsDavid Alan Walker (postdoc)[1][2]

For other people named Robert Hill, see Robert Hill (disambiguation). Robin Hill is also the name given to varieties of azalea bred by Robert Derby Gartrell.

Robert Hill FRS[3] (2 April 1899–15 March 1991), known as Robin Hill, was a British plant biochemist who, in 1939, demonstrated the 'Hill reaction' of photosynthesis, proving that oxygen is evolved during the light requiring steps of photosynthesis.[5][6][7] He also made significant contributions to the development of the Z-scheme[8][9] of oxygenic photosynthesis.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Education and early life

Hill was born in New Milverton, a suburb of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He was educated at Bedales School, where he became interested in biology and astronomy (he published a paper on sunspots in 1917),[citation needed] and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences. During the First World War he served in the Anti-gas Department of the Royal Engineers.[citation needed]

Career

In 1922 he joined the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge where he was directed to research hemoglobin. He published a number of papers on hemoglobin, and in 1926 he began to work with David Kellin on the haem containing protein cytochrome c. In 1932 he commenced work on plant biochemistry, focusing on photosynthesis and the oxygen evolution of chloroplasts, leading to the discovery of the 'Hill reaction'.

From 1943 Hill's work was funded by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), although he continued to work in the Cambridge Biochemistry Department. Hill continued to receive most of his recognition for his earlier work on photosynthesis and, beginning in the late 1950s, his work concentrated on the energetics of photosynthesis. In collaboration with Fay Bendall, he made his second great contribution to photosynthesis research with the discovery of the 'Z scheme' of electron transport.

Hill retired from the ARC in 1966, although his research at Cambridge continued until his death in 1991. In his later years Hill worked on the issue of the application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics to photosynthesis.

He was an expert on natural dyes and cultivated plants such as madder and woad. He painted watercolours using pigments he himself extracted.[3] In the 1920s, he developed a fish-eye camera and used it to take stereoscopic whole-sky images, recording cloud patterns in three dimensions.

Awards and honours

The Robert Hill Institute at the University of Sheffield, from which he received an honorary degree in 1990, was named after him.[17]

Hill was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946, his nomination reads:

Distinguished for his research on Haemoglobin and Photosynthesis. He was the first to demonstrate the reconstruction of haemoglobin from its components: globin and haematin. This was the first case of the splitting and reconstruction of a conjugated protein. He determined the properties and dissociation curve of myoglobin which explain the physiological function of the pigment. He also determined the structure and properties of several haematin compounds thereby aiding the study of their catalytic activities. He discovered a new approach to the biochemical study of photosynthesis which enabled him to demonstrate and to measure the evolution of oxygen by isolated chloroplasts exposed to light in the complete absence of CO2. This remarkable photochemical reaction was found by him to have the same properties as "light reaction" obtained with intact green cells in presence of CO2, and it led him to formulate an interesting working hypothesis of the mechanism of photosynthesis.[18]

He was awarded the Royal Medal in 1963, and the Copley Medal in 1987.

References

  1. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 6049483, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=6049483 instead.
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  3. ^ a b c Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rsbm.1994.0033, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1994.0033 instead.
  4. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 16245102, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid= 16245102 instead.
  5. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/139881a0, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/139881a0 instead.
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  7. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rspb.1939.0017, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1098/rspb.1939.0017 instead.
  8. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1016/S1360-1385(02)02242-2, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1016/S1360-1385(02)02242-2 instead.
  9. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/186136a0, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/186136a0 instead.
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  11. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 16245102, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=16245102 instead.
  12. ^ Hill, R.; Whittingham, C.P. (1953). Photosynthesis. London: Methuen.
  13. ^ Archives Hub, Papers and correspondence of Robert (Robin) Hill, 1899-1991
  14. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 24408827, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid= 24408827 instead.
  15. ^ Robin Hill's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  16. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(71)23109-8, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1016/S0076-6879(71)23109-8 instead.
  17. ^ http://robert-hill-institute.group.shef.ac.uk
  18. ^ "EC/1946/12 Hill, Robert". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014.


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