David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere,
KBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FRS (7 March 1924 - 23 February 1999) is considered to be a founding father of the now expanding field of
structural biologyStructural biology is a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function...
and was an influential figure in science and government. Among scientists, he will be remembered as the first person ever to determine in atomic detail the structure of the
enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
lysozymeLysozyme, also known as muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase, are a family of enzymes which damage bacterial cell walls by catalyzing hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues in a peptidoglycan and between N-acetyl-D-glucosamine...
, which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of the
Royal InstitutionThe Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1965.
David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere,
KBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FRS (7 March 1924 - 23 February 1999) is considered to be a founding father of the now expanding field of
structural biologyStructural biology is a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function...
and was an influential figure in science and government. Among scientists, he will be remembered as the first person ever to determine in atomic detail the structure of the
enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
lysozymeLysozyme, also known as muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase, are a family of enzymes which damage bacterial cell walls by catalyzing hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues in a peptidoglycan and between N-acetyl-D-glucosamine...
, which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of the
Royal InstitutionThe Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1965. Lysozyme, which was discovered in 1922 by
Alexander FlemingSir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. Fleming published many articles on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy...
, is found in tear drops, nasal mucus, gastric secretions and egg white. Lysozyme exhibits some antibacterial activity so that the discovery of its structure and mode of action were key scientific objectives. David Phillips solved the structure of lysozyme and also explained the mechanism of its action in destroying certain
bacteriaThe bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
by a brilliant application of the technique of
X-ray crystallographyX-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and diffracts into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a three-dimensional picture...
, a technique to which he had been introduced as a PhD student at the University in Cardiff, and to which he later made major instrumental contributions.
David Chilton Phillips, the son of a tailor and Methodist preacher, was born in
Ellesmere, ShropshireEllesmere is a small market town near Oswestry in north Shropshire, England, notable for its proximity to a number of prominent lakes, the Meres.-History:...
which gave rise to his title Baron Phillips of Ellesmere. He was educated at Oswestry Boy's High School and then at the University College of South Wales and Monmouth where he studied
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
,
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after...
, and
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
. His degree was interrupted between 1944 and 1947 for services in the Navy as a radar officer on
HMS Illustrious. He returned to
CardiffCardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. According to recent estimates, the...
to complete his degree and subsequently undertook postgraduate studies with Professor Arthur J. C. Wilson, a noted X-ray crystal physicist. After a brief postdoctoral period at the National Research Council in Ottawa (1951-55) he joined the Royal Institution. In 1968 he became the Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Zoology at the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
where he remained until his retirement in 1985. During that time he became a Fellow of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
and then its Biological Secretary from 1976 to 1983.
David was made
Knight BachelorThe rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1979, Knight Commander,
Order of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(KBE) in 1989 and appointed in 1994 as a Life Peer, as
Baron Phillips of Ellesmere. In the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
, he chaired the select committee on Science and Technology and he is credited with getting Parliament onto the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
.
Lord Phillips died of cancer, on 23 February, 1999.