Harden was born to Scottish Presbyterian businessman Albert Tyas Harden and Eliza Macalister. His early education was at a private school in Victoria Park run by Dr Ernest Adam. He went to study in 1877 atTettenhall College,Staffordshire, and enteredOwens College, now theUniversity of Manchester, in 1882, graduating in 1885. He studied chemistry under Professor Roscoe at Owens College and was influenced by J.B. Cohen (author ofThe Owens College Course of Practical Organic Chemistry).[4]
In 1886 Harden was awarded the Dalton Scholarship in Chemistry and spent a year working with Otto Fischer atErlangen where he worked on the synthesis of β-nitroso-α-naphthylamine and studied its properties. After receiving a Ph.D. he returned to Manchester as a lecturer and demonstrator and taught along with SirPhilip Hartog. He researched the life and work ofJohn Dalton during these years. In 1895 he wrote a textbook onPractical Organic Chemistry together with F.C. Garrett. Harden continued to work at Manchester until 1897 when he was appointed chemist to the newly founded British Institute of Preventive Medicine, which later became theLister Institute. He earned the degreeDoctor of Science (D.Sc.) from theVictoria University (which included Owens College) in June 1902.[5] Five years later, in 1907 he was appointed Head of the Biochemical Department, a position which he held until his retirement in 1930 (though he continued his scientific work at the Institute after his retirement).[4]
At Manchester, Harden had studied the action of light on mixtures ofcarbon dioxide andchlorine, and when he entered the Institute he applied his methods to the investigation of biological phenomena such as the chemical action ofbacteria and alcoholic fermentation. He studied the breakdown products ofglucose and the chemistry of theyeast cell, and produced a series of papers on theantiscorbutic and anti-neuriticvitamins.[4]
Harden was knighted in 1926, and received several honorary doctorates. A Fellow of theRoyal Society,[1] he received theDavy Medal in 1935.
^Manchester, K. (2000). "Arthur Harden: An unwitting pioneer of metabolic control analysis".Trends in Biochemical Sciences.25 (2):89–92.doi:10.1016/S0968-0004(99)01528-5.PMID10664590.
^"University intelligence".The Times. No. 36794. London. 14 June 1902. p. 13.
^Nobel Lectures Chemistry, 1922–1941. World Scientific. 1999. pp. 142–143.
^ Complete List of the Members & Officers of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society. From its institution on February 28th 1781 to April, 1896.
