We lost one of the greatest minds from our time on Tuesday November 22, 1938
Hans Adolf Krebs died in Oxford of United Kingdom from natural causes. He is survived and
mourned by his wife Margaret Cicely Fieldhouse Krebs and 3 children: Paul, Sir John, and
Helen Krebs.
He was born on August 25, 1900 in Hildesheim Germany to mother, Alma Davidson
Krebs, and father Georg Krebs. His father was a physician who inspired him to follow a
career path in science and medicine. He attended various universities where he studied
medicine such as the University of Gttingen, the university of Freiburg, the university of
Berlin, and the university of Hamburg.
He studied under Otto Warburg as a research assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Biology. After 4 years and 16 publications, in 1930, his mentor, Warburg,
encouraged him to move on and perform his own research. In 1932, he discovered the
ornithine cycle of urea synthesis, which describes reactions that occur in organisms in
order to produce urea from ammonia. It is this discovery that gave him a reputation as a
great scientist around the world.
As the Nazis gained power, he was denied a job in 1933 because of his Jewish
background. Fortunately, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins offered him a job at the
Biochemical Institute at Cambridge. From there his carrier took him to various research
facilities and universities where he became a professor. In 1947, he was elected as a
member of the royal society.
He is most famous for his discovery of the citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs
cycle, named after him. It is a series of reactions that occur in all aerobic organisms to
generate energy from the oxidation of acetate derived from the breakdown of
carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Krebs won a Nobel Prize of Medicine, shared with
American Fritz Lipmann in 1953 for the discovery of the Krebs cycle. He went on to win
many more awards such as the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1953, a
Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1954, a Copley medal in 1961, and a Gold Medal of
the Netherlands Society for Physics, Medical Science and Surgery in 1958. He was
knighted in 1958 and amazingly received honorary doctorate degrees from 21 different
universities.
Krebs will be dearly missed by his family and friend as well as the entire scientific
community. He was not only a great scientist but also a great person with an exceptional
personality who is an exceptional example of how scientists should be. He remained
modest despite all his great achievements and said that what the giants of science teach
us is to see ourselves modestly and not to overrate ourselves.
This is why we are so honored to have Dr. Mitchell, a great scientist with us today.
Give a warm welcome for Dr. Peter Mitchell.