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Sir John Cornforth AC CBE
1975 * Award
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Sydney-born Cornforth, who had become completely deaf in his early twenties, was awarded a scholarship in 1939 to Oxford where he experimented with penicillin under Howard Florey. As Australia did not offer any opportunities for research chemists who could not lecture, he spent the rest of his working life in England. He shared the 1975 Nobel Prize with Vladimir Prelog for their work on stereochemistry. Cornforth's share of the prize was for his study of enzymes, the catalysts that make possible the chemical processes of life. His wife Rita, also a brilliant organic chemist, carried out much of the experimental work.
Among many other honours and awards, Cornforth received a knighthood in 1977, and the Royal Society's highest awards, the Royal Society and Copley medals in 1976 and 1982 respectively. He was Royal Society Research Professor of molecular sciences, 1975 - 82, and then Emeritus Research Professor at Sussex University. Sir John described the business of scientists as being 'not to believe but to test, check and balance all theories, including their own'.
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