The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Ellesmere | |
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| Born | David Chilton Phillips (1924-03-07)7 March 1924 Ellesmere, Shropshire, England |
| Died | 23 February 1999(1999-02-23) (aged 74) Royal Marsden Hospital, London, England |
| Known for | Determination of the structure and catalytic mechanism oflysozyme. Contributions to the techniques ofX-ray crystallography. Public service in science and government. |
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| Other notable students | Janet Thornton (postdoc)[11][12] |
David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of EllesmereKBE FRS (7 March 1924 – 23 February 1999)[13] was a pioneering, Britishstructural biologist and an influential figure in science and government.
David was the son of Charles Harry Phillips, a master tailor and Methodist preacher, and his wife, Edith Harriet Finney, a midwife.[14] His mother's father wasSamuel Finney, a coal miner, union official and Member of Parliament.[13]
He was born inEllesmere, Shropshire which gave rise to his title Baron Phillips of Ellesmere. He was educated atOswestry High School for Boys and then at theUniversity College of South Wales and Monmouth where he studiedphysics,electrical engineering, andmathematics. His degree was interrupted between 1944 and 1947 for service in theRoyal Navy as a radar officer onHMS Illustrious. He returned toCardiff to complete his degree (BSc in 1948) and then undertook postgraduate studies withArthur Wilson. He was awarded hisPhD in 1951.[citation needed]
After apostdoctoral period at the National Research Council in Ottawa (1951–55) he joined the Royal Institution.[15][16] In 1966 he was appointedProfessor of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Zoology at theUniversity of Oxford where he remained until his retirement in 1990. During that time he was elected aFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) serving as Biological Secretary from 1976 to 1983.
Phillips lead the team which determined in atomic detail the structure of theenzymelysozyme, which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of theRoyal Institution in London in 1965. Lysozyme, which was discovered in 1922 byAlexander Fleming,[17] 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 bacteria by a brilliant application of the technique ofX-ray crystallography, 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.
Phillips was made aKnight Bachelor in the1979 Birthday Honours,[18] invested asKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the1989 New Year Honours,[19] and created aLife Peer asBaron Phillips of Ellesmere, ofEllesmere in theCounty of Shropshire on 14 July 1994.[20] In theHouse of Lords, he chaired the select committee on Science and Technology and he is credited with getting Parliament onto theWorld Wide Web. In 1994, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by theUniversity of Bath.[21]
In 1980 he was invited to deliver a series ofRoyal Institution Christmas Lecture onThe Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules.[22]
In 1960 Phillips married Diana Hutchinson.[citation needed] Phillips died ofprostate cancer, on 23 February 1999.[23] He was diagnosed in 1988.[24]
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| Preceded by | Fullerian Professor of Physiology 1979–1985 | Succeeded by |
