Frederick Gowland Hopkins

Hopkins tied knot with Jessie Anne Stevens in the year 1898. The couple was blessed with daughters.

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins passed away in Cambridge on May 16, 1947. His burial took place at the ‘Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground’.

Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born to Frederick Hopkins and Elizabeth Gowland Hopkins on June 20,1861 in the town of Eastbourne in Sussex, England. Hopkins’ father used to sell books but he also had a deep interest in science.

His father left this world at the time when Fredrick was still a toddler and his mother took care of his early education in Eastbourne. In the year 1871, the family moved to Enfield in London and the young lad took admission at the ‘City of London School’.

At the ‘City of London School’, Hopkins proved to be a bright student who excelled in academics and in the year 1874 he managed to get a first class in his favourite subject, chemistry graduating at the young age of 17.

After leaving school he worked as a clerk in an insurance firm and then became an associate at the ‘Institute of Chemistry’, where his findings on poisons were immensely appreciated. In the meantime, he took advantage of the ‘University of London External Programme’ and earned his B.Sc. in 1888.

In the year 1889, Frederick won the ‘Sir William Gull Studentship’ and took admission to ‘Guy’s Hospital’ to study medicine. It was five years later that he graduated with a degree.

In the year 1894 he was appointed as a teacher at ‘Guy’s Hospital’, where he taught toxicology and around this time he also published an important paper on blood albumins with S. N. Pinkus.

It was in the year 1898 that Sir Henry Foster invited Frederick to work at the famous ‘Cambridge University’ to work on the research at the ‘Physiological Laboratory’ at the university. He was specifically asked to work on the chemical side of things as far as physiology was concerned.

In the year 1902, Hopkins was promoted as a reader in the subject of biochemistry and since the discipline was not a traditional subject of study he had to make do with his experiments in a small room at the university.

In the year 1910 Hopkins was made a ‘Fellow of Trinity College’ and then four years later he became an ‘Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College’. However, it was not till 15 years from becoming a Fellow did he get his own laboratory at the ‘Sir William Dunn Institute of Biochemistry’.

At the height of the First World War, Hopkins discovered what he termed as ‘accessory food factors’ or Vitamins and continued to work on it. As a matter of fact, it was his inputs that led to better and more nutritious margarine that could be used during food shortages.

Other than discovering vitamins one of the most important studies that Hopkins performed was that of identifying a chemical method that would help in separating tryptophan. He succeeded in isolating it and studying its structure which opened new avenues in the world of biochemistry.