| Authorised form of name | Perutz; Max Ferdinand (1914 - 2002) |
| Dates | 1914 - 2002 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Vienna, Austria |
| Date of birth | 19/05/1914 |
| Place of death | Cambridge |
| Date of death | 06/02/2002 |
| Dates and places | Burial: Ascension Burial Ground, Cambridge. Headstone refers to Hugo Perutz 1878-1956, Dely Perutz 1883-1968, Max Perutz FRS 1914-2002, and Gisela Perutz 1915-2005 |
| Research field | Molecular biology |
| Haemoglobin |
| Activity | Education:
Theresianum (grammar school), Vienna; University of Vienna
Career:
Research under J D Bernal (FRS 1937), Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge (1937); Assistant to Sir Lawrence Bragg (FRS 1921), Cavendish Laboratory; Interned as an "enemy alien,"during WW2 released to work for the military; ICI Fellow (1945-1947); Head of MRC Unit for the Study of Molecular Structure of Biological Systems (1947-1957); Reader in Chemistry, Davy Faraday Research Laboratory, Royal Institution, London (1954-1958); Director, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge (1957-1979,), Chairman (1967); Honorary Fellow, Peterhouse, Cambridge (1962); won Nobel Prize jointly with Sir John Kendrew (FRS 1960); Chairman, European Molecular Biology Organisation (1963-1969); Fullerian Professor of Physiology, Davy Faraday Laboratory, Royal Institution (1973-1979);
With Francois Jacob, Pieter Van Dijk and Torten Wiesel became a founding member of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (1993), with the purpose of raising the consciousness of academies around the world about the need to defend fellow scientists and scholars who became victims of severe repression for having exercised those rights promulgated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The organisation put on the Max Perutz Memorial Lecture on Thursday, 19 May 2005 at the Royal Society Wellcome Trust Lecture Hall entitled 'The Archimedean Lever: Right in the Face of Night' by Professor Sari Nusseibeh, Presient. Al-Quds University, East Jerusalem
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Chemistry) 1962
Honours:
CBE 1963; CH 1975; OM 1988
Memberships:
Millennium FRSC (2000) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 18/03/1954 |
| Age at election | 39 |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1971; Copley Medal 1979
Lectures:
Croonian 1968; Humphry Davy 1988; Medawar 1992 |
| Relationships | Family were textile manufacturers; married (1942) Gisela Peiser; one son, one daughter |
| Sources | Sources:
Obituaries in The Times, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian all 07 February 2002; Science vol 295, 29 March 2002, p2382-2383
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2004 vol 50 pp 227-256, plate, by D M Blow
References:
Sir John Meurig Thomas, 'Peterhouse, the Royal Society and molecular biology' in NR 2000 vol 54 pp 369-385
R Holliday, 'The early years of molecular biology: personal recollections' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 195-208
A Cook, 'Report. Migrants to The Royal Society, 1930-1940' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 303-304
J M Thomas 'Max Perutz: Chemist, Molecular Biologist, Human Rights Activist' in NR 2006 vol 60 pp59-67 |
| Royal Society code | NA3075 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| IM/003528 | Perutz, Max Ferdinand | nd |
| GLB/65/80/94 | Max Perutz, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University Postgraduate Medical School, Cambridge to Brown | 5 October 1967 |
| GLB/65/80/95 | Brown to Max Perutz, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University Postgraduate Medical School, Cambridge | 12 October 1967 |
| PB/2/2/10/1/3 | Correspondence on V-particles, January-October 1950 | January-October 1950 |
| PB/1/33/4/6 | President of the Royal Society | 1965 |
| A/0211 | Perutz, Max | 1989 |
| IM/003527 | Perutz, Max Ferdinand | 16 May 1968 |
| RR/71/232 | Referee's report by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'An X-ray study of horse methaemoglobin. II' by Max Ferdinand Perutz | 1948 |
| RR/66/227 | Second referee's report by Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, on a paper 'A crystallographic investigation of glacier structure and the mechanism of glacier flow' by Max Ferdinand Perutz and Gerald Seligman | [June 1939] |
| RR/70/39 | Referee's report by John Monteath Robertson, on a paper 'An X-ray study of horse methaemoglobin. I' by Joy Boyes-Watson, Edna Davidson and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 1947 |
| RR/70/38 | Referee's report by William Thomas Astbury, on a paper 'An X-ray study of horse methaemoglobin. I' by Joy Boyes-Watson, Edna Davidson and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 1947 |
| RR/71/231 | Referee's report by William Thomas Astbury, on a paper 'An X-ray study of horse methaemoglobin. II' by Max Ferdinand Perutz | 1948 |
| TG/1/2/4 | Letter from Thomas Gold to Dr Max Perutz, Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge | 2 July 1964 |
| RR/69/69 | Referee's report by Max Ferdinand Perutz, on a paper 'Studies on silk proteins I. The properties and constitution of fibroin. The conversion of fibroin into a water-soluble form and its bearing on the phenomenon of denaturation' by D Coleman and F O Howitt | 3 May 1945 |
| EC/1954/14 | Perutz, Max Ferdinand: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/66/226 | Referee's report by Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, on a paper 'A crystallographic investigation of glacier structure and the mechanism of glacier flow' by Max Ferdinand Perutz and Gerald Seligman | 4 April 1939 |
| RR/71/165 | Referee's report by William Thomas Astbury, on a paper 'A comparative X-ray study of foetal and adult sheep haemoglobins' by John Cowdery Kendrew and Max Ferdinand Perutz | [1948] |
| AP/82/14 | Supporting data, regarding 'The structure of haemoglobin VIII. A three-dimensional Fourier synthesis at 5.5 Å resolution: determination of the phase angles' and 'The structure of haemoglobin. IX. A three-dimensional Fourier synthesis at 5.5 Å resolution: description of the structure' by Ann F Cullis, Hilary Muirhead, Max Ferdinand Perutz, Michael George Rossmann and A C T North | [1961-1962] |
| RR/71/166 | Referee's report by John Monteath Robertson, on a paper 'A comparative X-ray study of foetal and adult sheep haemoglobins' by John Cowdery Kendrew and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 10 March 1948 |
| RR/73/88 | Referee's report by William Thomas Astbury, on a paper 'Polypeptide chain configurations in crystalline proteins' by William Lawrence Bragg, John Cowdery Kendrew and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 25 May 1950 |
| RR/73/89 | Referee's report by John Monteath Robertson, on a paper 'Polypeptide chain configurations in crystalline proteins' by William Lawrence Bragg, John Cowdery Kendrew and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 1950 |
| RR/77/42 | Referee's report by William Thomas Astbury, on a paper 'The structure of haemoglobin' by William Lawrence Bragg and Max Ferdinand Perutz | 17 March 1952 |
| RR/77/61 | Referee's report by Albert James Bradley, on a paper 'Measurement of the velocity distribution along a vertical line through a glacier' by J A F Gerrard, Max Ferdinand Perutz and André Roch | 19 March 1952 |
| RR/79/231 | Referee's report by John Desmond Bernal, on a paper 'The structure of haemoglobin. II' by William Lawrence Bragg, E R Howells and Max Ferdinand Perutz | [November 1953] |