George Hitchings | |
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 George H. Hitchings in 1988 | |
| Born | George Herbert Hitchings April 18, 1905 Hoquiam, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | February 27, 1998 (1998-02-28) (aged 92) |
| Alma mater | University of Washington Harvard University |
| Known for | chemotherapy |
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George Herbert Hitchings (April 18, 1905 – February 27, 1998) was an American medical doctor who shared the 1988Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine withSir James Black andGertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment", Hitchings specifically for his work onchemotherapy.[2][3][4][5][6]
Hitchings was born inHoquiam, Washington, in 1905, and grew up there, inBerkeley, California,San Diego,Bellingham, Washington, andSeattle. He graduated from Seattle'sFranklin High School, where he wassalutatorian, in 1923, and from there went to theUniversity of Washington, from which he graduated with a degree inchemistrycum laude in 1927, after having been elected toPhi Beta Kappa as a junior the year before. That summer, he worked at the university'sPuget Sound Biological Station atFriday Harbor onSan Juan Island[1], and received a master's degree the next year for his thesis based on that work.
From the University of Washington, Hitchings went toHarvard University as a teaching fellow, ending up at Harvard Medical School. Before getting hisPh.D. in 1933,[7] he joinedAlpha Chi Sigma in 1929.[8][9][10]
Following his PhD, he worked at Harvard andCase Western Reserve University. In 1942, he went to work for Wellcome Research Laboratories atTuckahoe, where he began working withGertrude Elion in 1944. Drugs Hitchings' team worked on included2,6-diaminopurine (a compound to treatleukemia) and p-chlorophenoxy-2,4-diaminopyrimidine (afolic acid antagonist). According to his Nobel Prize autobiography,
In 1967 Hitchings became vice president in Charge of Research of Burroughs-Wellcome. He became Scientist Emeritus in 1976. He also served as adjunct professor of pharmacology and of experimental medicine from 1970 to 1985 atDuke University.[11]
Hitchings founded the Triangle Community Foundation in 1983. Hitchings is a member of the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.
His first wife, Beverly Reimer Hitchings, died in 1985. Hitchings remarried in 1989 to Joyce Carolyn Shaver-Hitchings, MD. Dr. Shaver-Hitchings died in 2009.[12]
Hitchings died on 27 February 1998 inChapel Hill, North Carolina.[citation needed]
Hitchings was awarded the Passano award by thePassano Foundation in 1969,[13] and the de Villiers award in 1970.[14] In 1972, he was awarded theCameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. He was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1974.[1] In 1989, Hitchings received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[15]
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