Christian Anfinsen

@Biochemists, Birthday and Life

Christian Boehmer Anfinsen was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972

Mar 26, 1916

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: March 26, 1916
  • Died on: May 14, 1995
  • Nationality: American
  • Famous: University Of Pennsylvania, Scientists, Biochemists
  • City/State: Pennsylvania
  • Spouses: Florence Bernice Kenenger, Libby Esther Shulman Ely
  • Childrens: Carol, Christian, Daniel, David, Margot, Mark, Tobie

Christian Anfinsen born at

Monessen, Pennsylvania

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Birth Place

He married Florence Bernice Kenenger in November, 1941, and divorced her in 1978. He had two daughters Carol and Margot and a son Christian from this marriage.

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Personal Life

He married Libby Esther Shulman Ely in 1979, and became a stepfather to Libby’s four sons Mark, Tobie, Daniel and David.

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Personal Life

Christian B. Anfinsen died of heart attack at Randallstown, Maryland, on May 14, 1995, at the age of seventy-nine.

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Personal Life

Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Jr. was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1916. His father, Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Sr was a mechanical engineer and his mother was Sophie Rasmussen Anfinsen.

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Childhood & Early Life

He had a sister named Carol. Both his parents were Norwegian immigrants, and lived in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, for several years and before moving to Philadelphia in the 1920s.

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Childhood & Early Life

Anfinsen joined the ‘Swarthmore College’ after getting a scholarship to study chemistry and worked as a waiter at the dining hall.

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Childhood & Early Life

He earned his B.S. degree from the ‘Swarthmore College’ in 1937 and joined the ‘University of Pennsylvania’ to pursue graduate studies.

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Childhood & Early Life

He received his M.S. degree in organic chemistry from the ‘University of Pennsylvania’ in 1939 and worked at the university as an assistant instructor during this period.

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Childhood & Early Life

After receiving his PhD degree in 1943, Christian Boehmer Anfinsen taught biological chemistry at the ‘Harvard Medical School’ for the next seven years till 1950, first as an instructor and then as an assistant professor.

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Career

From 1944 to 1946 he served in a civilian research post at the ‘Office of Scientific Research and Development’ in Harvard.

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Career

From 1947 to 1948 he worked at the ‘Medical Nobel Institute’ in Stockholm after being sponsored as a Senior Fellow by the ‘American Cancer Society’

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Career

In 1950 he became the Director of the ‘Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Metabolism’ of the ‘National Heart Institute’ a part of the rapidly expanding ‘National Institutes of Health (NIH)’ located at Bethesda, Maryland and held the post till 1954.

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Career

He moved to the ‘Carlsberg Laboratory’ in Copenhagen in 1954 with the help of a ‘Rockfeller Foundation’ fellowship and worked with Kaj Linderstrom-Lang for a year.

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Career

Christian B. Anfinsen published his book ‘The Molecular Basis of Evolution’ in 1959.

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Major Works