Remembered by Dr David Yates (University of Bristol)

William Trefor Griffiths was born 15 December 1938 into a Welsh mining family in Carmarthenshire, north of Llanelli. He adopted the anglicised version of Trevor even though his family spoke Welsh and he did not learn English until he was 8 years old. He was educated at Gwendreath Grammar School, again taught in Welsh. He briefly overlapped with Barry John, the legendary Welsh fly half.

From Gwendreath, Trevor went to Aberystwyth University to read biochemistry and after gaining his first degree, Trevor was accepted for a research studentship, funded by the Agricultural Research Council and supervised by Trevor Goodwin again at Aberystwyth. During his graduate studies, Trevor met and fell in love with June, an undergraduate, and they were married in 1963.

Goodwin’s laboratory was large by the standards of the day, and a senior postdoctoral fellow, David Threlfall, was a key collaborator for Trevor’s work. His PhD looked at the presence, structure and distribution of plastoquinones. He was awarded his doctorate in October 1965. David Threlfall moved to Hull, and Trevor took up an assistant lectureship at Liverpool, working with Professor R.A. Morton.

In 1966, the Department of Biochemistry at Bristol advertised two posts to strengthen research and teaching in plant biochemistry, and the successful applicants were Trevor Griffiths and Owen Jones. Plant biochemistry was a difficult field in which to attract grants at that time. He shared laboratory space with Owen Jones for many years but developed contacts in botany, in particular with Keith Stobart, as well as other biochemists.

Read Trevor's full obituary in The Biochemist.

The death of Patricia Lund on 13 December 2023, marks the end of an era in metabolic research defined by Hans Krebs in his memoirs as follows: “When examining a biological phenomenon, it is always important to examine the whole process and not merely a fragment in a damaged tissue” [HA Krebs, Reminiscences and Reflections, Oxford University Press (1981); p63]. Pat was the last of the five original members of the Metabolic Research Laboratory (MRL), formed after Krebs’s mandated retirement from the Whitley Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 1967. The MRL was housed in a wing at the back of the Radcliffe Infirmary, next to a medical ward, and administratively a part of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine. Besides Professor Hans Krebs (1900–1981), aka ‘The Prof’, and Pat, other core members of the MRL were Leonard Eggleston (1920–1972), Reginald (Reg) Hems (1926–2005) and Dermot Hedley (Derek) Williamson (1920–1998). The MRL was a bustling place, with about 15 members orderly distributed among benches and desks in one large room; it was a uniquely happy place and productive scientific environment, quietly, but strongly, led by Krebs and ably supported by the very capable scientists he surrounded himself with, including Pat. Almost unique to the lab was a plethora of visiting researchers from all over the world, many of whom later went on to great eminence. All of them relished a highly positive atmosphere, due largely to the welcome, hospitality and stimulation of the permanent members: Pat Lund was highly regarded by all for her wit, warmth and wisdom. And for her unfailing willingness to help others, at the bench and in the library.

Read Patricia's full obituary in the Biochemical Journal.

James grew up in the village of Sutton Green, near Guildford, Essex, and attended Sherborne School, following a curriculum appropriate to his initial intention of becoming an architect. However, he changed his mind after the fifth year and transferred to Guildford Technical College, where intensive courses prepared him for a career in science. He was accepted to study biochemistry at Aberdeen University, after which he obtained a PhD under the supervision of D. C. Watts at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London. In 1972, he joined the Biochemistry Department at Glasgow University where he spent his entire career, achieving the position of titular professor. After his retirement, he continued working and publishing as an honorary senior research fellow until his death.

One might say that James’ milieu was the Protein Data Bank, where the accumulation of protein co-ordinates in the second half of the last century made it possible to determine whether relatively small structural features found in individual proteins occurred more widely. James had an eye for such features and was able to appreciate the significance of the context in which they occurred. In particular, he realized that the backbone, as well as the side-chains, had chemical properties that facilitate a functional as well as a structural role in proteins.

You can read James's full obituary in The Biochemist.

Colyn Crane-Robinson, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Portsmouth, was born on 20 October 1935 and died on 5 March 2023. His death marks the end of a career as a world-leading researcher in the field of chromatin structure and epigenetics.

Colyn was born in the Sale area of Greater Manchester to Robin and Marion. After evacuation at the start of World War 2, he returned to Manchester in 1947 and joined Ackworth Secondary School in south-west Yorkshire. At school, he enjoyed cricket, becoming a noted bowler, obtaining the nickname ‘colyncranecricketball’, and later the captain of the first team. He cited his teacher at the time, Mr Harris, as giving him a lasting passion for classical music and secondly, and more critical to his future career, chemistry.

In 1954, Colyn joined Christ Church College, Oxford, where his love for research was fostered. After obtaining a first-class degree, he began his DPhil in the laboratory of H.W. Thompson, a renowned infra-red spectroscopist, working on vibrational–rotational spectra studies of gas-phase molecules. This time was noted by having to construct one’s own gas line, meaning a glass-blowing course had to be undertaken, something Colyn managed but, by his own admission, his creations contained many strange shapes and bubbles!

Rex began his research career doing a PhD in Dennis Richter’s lab in Cardiff, studying a number of metabolites in brain and examining how they changed under various conditions (he once told me that the first thing he had to do when joining the lab was to build his own Geiger Counter!). Among the compounds studied were metabolites of phospholipids, and during a Beit Memorial Fellowship he extended this to the phospholipids themselves. He then moved to the Biochemistry Department in Oxford where he switched to a Betty Brookes Fellowship and it was there that he started to make a major impact on phospholipid biochemistry.

Remembered by Stephen Halford (University of Bristol)

Freddie Gutfreund (few used his birth name Herbert) spent much of his career in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, from 1965 (1 year after the department was established) through to his retirement in 1986, though remaining here for several more years thereafter.

Freddie had an unorthodox career before arriving in Bristol. He passed only two exams in his life: his high school diploma in Vienna (equivalent to the old 11+ exam) and his PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge. Whilst a teenager in Vienna in 1938, the Nazi invasion of Austria ended his hopes in his home country. But his prospects for emigration from Austria were bleak until he noted that a YMCA scheme, ‘British Boys for British Farms’, was accepting candidates from Europe due to the lack of British applicants. Freddie thus spent his first 3 years in the UK as a dairyman in Westmorland.

Read Freddie's full obituary in The Biochemist. 

Louis joined the Biochemical Society in May 1949 and continued until his death. He was thereby one of the longest ever serving members of the Society.

He was born in London, the third child of Jewish parents from northern Romania. In 1938 he gained scholarships to study for a degree in chemistry at University College London (UCL) achieving First Class Honours and then a PhD. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, he was evacuated to Aberystwyth in Wales, along with the rest of UCL, to complete his degrees. There he met his future wife Frances Mary Richards.

Read Louis' full obituary in The Biochemist.