David Mervyn Blow

David Mervyn Blow Template:Post-nominals<ref name="frs">Template:Cite journal</ref> (27 June 1931 – 8 June 2004)<ref name=whoswho>Template:Who's Who</ref><ref name=nytimes/><ref name=grauniad/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Early life and education

Blow was born in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset and the University of Cambridge where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His PhD was awarded in 1958 for X-ray analysis of haemoglobin supervised by Max Perutz at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).<ref name=mervphd>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Career and research

Following graduation from Cambridge, Blow spent two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded by the Fulbright Foundation<ref name=whoswho/>

In 1954, he met Max Perutz;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> they began to study a new technique wherein X-rays would be passed through a protein sample at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. This eventually led to the creation of a three-dimensional structure of haemoglobin.<ref name="RossmannBlow1962">Template:Cite journal</ref> Blow was appointed professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977. His doctoral students include Richard Henderson,<ref name=hendphd>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name=tls>Template:Cite web</ref> Paul Sigler,<ref name="blowacademictruee" /> and Alice Vrielink.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and honours

Blow was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1987.<ref name=whoswho/>

Personal life

Blow married Mavis Sears in 1955, and they had two children, a son Julian and a daughter Elizabeth.<ref name=whoswho/><ref name=grauniad /> He died of lung cancer at the age of 72, in Appledore, Torridge (near Bideford), Devon.<ref name=nytimes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=grauniad>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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