Max Perutz

Max Ferdinand Perutz (19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin.

Overcoming his parents' objections he enrolled as a chemistry undergraduate at the University of Vienna and completed his degree in 1936.

Made aware by lecturer Fritz von Wessely of the advances being undertaken at the University of Cambridge into biochemistry by a team led by Gowland Hopkins, he asked Professor Mark, who was soon to visit Cambridge, to make inquiries of Hopkins about whether there would be a place for him.

Mark forgot, but had visited J.D. Bernal, who was looking for a research student to assist him with studies into X-ray crystallography.

Perutz was dismayed as he knew nothing about the subject.

Mark countered by saying that he would soon learn.

Bernal accepted him as a research student in his crystallography research group at the Cavendish Laboratory.

His father had deposited £500 with his London agent to support him.

He learnt quickly.

Bernal encouraged him to use the X-ray diffraction method to study the structure of proteins.

As protein crystals were difficult to obtain, he used horse haemoglobin crystals, and began his doctoral thesis on its structure.

Haemoglobin was a subject which was to occupy him for most of his professional career.

When Hitler took over Austria in 1938, Perutz's parents managed to escape to Switzerland, but they had lost all of their money.

As a result, Perutz lost their financial support.

With his ability to ski, experience in mountaineering since childhood and his knowledge of crystals, Perutz was accepted as a member of a three-man team to study the conversion of snow into ice in Swiss glaciers in the summer of 1938.

His resulting article for the Proceedings of the Royal Society made him known as an expert on glaciers.

Lawrence Bragg, who was Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish, thought that Perutz's research into haemoglobin had promise and encouraged him to apply for a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to continue his research.

The application was accepted in January 1939 and with the money Perutz was able to bring his parents from Switzerland to England in March 1939.

On the outbreak of World War II, Perutz was rounded up along with other persons of German or Austrian background, and sent to Newfoundland (on orders from Winston Churchill).

After being interned for several months he returned to Cambridge.

Because of his pre-War research into the changes in the arrangement of the crystals in the layers of a glacier, he was asked for advice on whether if a battalion of commandos were landed in Norway, could they be hidden in shelters under glaciers.

He completed his Ph.D. under Lawrence Bragg in 1940.

He applied to Kings and St. John's colleges, and became a member of Peterhouse, on the basis that it served the best food.

His knowledge on the subject of ice then led to him being recruited for Project Habakkuk in 1942.

This was a secret project to build an ice platform in the mid-Atlantic, which could be used to refuel aircraft.

To that end he investigated the recently invented mixture of ice and woodpulp known as pykrete.

He carried out early experiments on pykrete in a secret location underneath Smithfield Meat Market in the City of London.

After the War he returned briefly to glaciology, demonstrating how glaciers flow.

In 1947, Perutz, with the support of Professor Bragg, was successful in obtaining support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to undertake research into the molecular structure of biological systems.

This financial support allowed him to establish the Molecular Biology Unit at the Cavendish Laboratory.

Perutz's new unit attracted researchers who realised that the field of molecular biology had great promise; among them were Francis Crick in 1949 and James D. Watson in 1951.

In 1953, Perutz showed that diffracted X-rays from protein crystals could be phased by comparing the patterns from crystals of the protein with and without heavy atoms attached.

At Cambridge he founded and chaired (1962–79) The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), fourteen of whose scientists have won Nobel Prizes.

Perutz was born in Vienna, the son of Adele "Dely" (Goldschmidt) and Hugo Perutz, a textile manufacturer.

His parents were Jewish by ancestry, but had baptised Perutz in the Catholic religion.

Although Perutz rejected religion and was an atheist in his later years, he was against offending others for their religious beliefs.

His parents hoped that he would become a lawyer, but he became interested in chemistry while at school.

He was elected an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse in 1962.

He took a keen interest in the Junior Members, and was a regular and popular speaker at the Kelvin Club, the College's scientific society.

He went on to win the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1971 and the Copley Medal in 1979.