David Mervyn Blow
| David Mervyn Blow | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 June 1931 Birmingham, England |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Appledore, North Devon, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Biophysicist |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | Max Perutz[1] |
| Other academic advisors | Alexander Rich[1] |
| Doctoral students | Richard Henderson Paul Sigler[1] |
| Other notable students | Thomas A. Steitz Brian Matthews[1] |
| Known for | Haemoglobin X-ray crystallography |
| Notable awards | FRS[2] |
David Mervyn Blow FRS[2] (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.[3]
Early life and education
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
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;[4] 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.
Blow was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972.
Blow became professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977.
Personal life
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
External links
- Pages using authority control with parameters
- VIAF different on Wikidata
- 1931 births
- 2004 deaths
- Academics of Imperial College London
- Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
- 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
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
