Fritz A. Lipmann M.D., Ph.D.
Fritz A. Lipmann M.D., Ph.D.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953
Co-Nobelist Hans Krebs
National Medal of Science – Biological Sciences 1966
Name: Fritz Albert Lipmann
Birth: 12 June 1899, Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad), Germany (now Russia)
Death: 24 July 1986, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
Institution: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Award: “for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism”
Subject: biochemistry, cell physiology, metabolism
Portion of cash: 1/2
Doctoral/Post Doc Advisor/Mentor: Hans Meerwein and Otto Meyerhof, Medicine Nobelist 1922. Kaiser-Wilhelm/Max-Planck Institutes, Berlin.
Co-author, Thesis, M.D.: With Peter Rona, on colloid chemistry (1924). University of Berlin. Rona taught three Nobel prizewinners: Ernst B. Chain, Hans Krebs and Fritz Lipmann.
Liljestrand, Science Academy: …Regarding fundamental discoveries laymen ask for immediate practical application. Counter question of Benjamin Franklin: Of what use is a new-born baby?
Biography
Books
Defining Moments
Hobbies
Health
Honoring Fritz Lipmann
Humor
Nat’l Medal, Science
Work Environment
Defining Moments
Father, attorney, to Fritz Lipmann: he not enough of a crook to be an outstanding lawyer.
Lipmann’s uncle and his hero, died young due to a ruptured appendix. A reason which caused Fritz to study medicine in 1917.
Parents and friends suggested that he study pathology to become a physician. He dissected cadavers and examined slides. Rather unusually, this caused him to choose a different career. He enrolled in Peter Rona’s 3 month biochemistry course. Peter Rona, had worked with Leonor Michaelis. Ultimately Peter Rona had taught three Nobel prize winners:
Ernst B. Chain, Hans Krebs and Fritz Lipmann.
Those days biochemistry was considered only an adjunct to physiology. Lipmann was an uncommon physician. He referred to this course as a kind of biochemical marathon.