Baldwin Lectures

Transcript drafts of lectures on biochemistry for University College London MSc students. Also notes for an unpublished book.

Born in Gloucester, 1909; educated at the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, 1920-1928; graduated from St John's College Cambridge with a first class degree in both parts of the Natural Science Tripos (Part ll Biochemistry); began postgraduate research in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge, receiving his PhD for 'Some comparative studies on phosphagen' 1934; principal research interest was comparative biochemistry; Fellow of St John's College Cambridge, 1936-1941; worked under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins as Demonstrator in Biochemistry, 1936-1943; also worked for periods at marine biological stations in France and at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth, in the 1930s; undertook a series of investigations of the pharmacology and physiology of 'Ascaris lumbricoides', 1940-1949; Lecturer in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge, 1943-1950; Senior Fellow of the Lalor Foundation, USA, carrying out research into the phosphagen of the invertebrates at the Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1948; as Joint Honorary Secretary and member of the Congress and Executive Committees, active in the organisation of the First International Congress of Biochemistry, in Cambridge, 1949; Professor of Biochemistry at University College London (UCL), 1950-1969; his reputation as an educator was one of the principal reasons for his appointment; established the first undergraduate biochemistry course at the College and orientated the biochemistry department as a branch of biological rather than chemical science; awarded the Cortina Ulisse Prize for the Italian edition of 'Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry', 1952; after his move to UCL, his principal research interests were the comparative biochemistry of nitrogen metabolism and water shortage effects on the ureotelic metabolism; carried out research on ureogenesis in elasmobranch fishes during a period as Visiting Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, University of California, 1956-1957; author of several influential books on biochemistry; died, 1969. Publications include: 'An Introduction to Comparative Biochemistry' (1937); 'Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry' (1947); 'The Nature of Biochemistry' (1962).

Open

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Presented by Dr Huggins via the Thane Library.

Collection level description

University College London also holds the papers and correspondence of Ernest Hubert Francis Baldwin, 1930-1970 (Ref: BALDWIN). The main deposit includes biographical papers, largely documenting Baldwin's academic career from 1934 onwards, including his appointment to the Chair of Biochemistry at University College London, 1950; correspondence, 1951-1968, including personal correspondence and exchanges with scientific colleagues; documentation on Baldwin's research, notebooks, including material documenting Baldwin's work at Cambridge with Dorothy Mary Moyle Needham, Joseph Needham and John Yudkin, a continuous sequence of ten notebooks documenting his research, 1934-1948, and notebooks kept at Woods Hole, 1948, and at Scripps, 1956-1957; extensive material relating to publications, lectures and broadcasts, illustrating Baldwin's role as writer and lecturer on biochemical matters; drafts and correspondence relating to his principal biochemical texts such as 'Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry' and 'The Nature of Biochemistry'.