It is with great sadness that we report that alumnus and Honorary Fellow Sir Hans Kornberg (Biochemistry, 1956) died on Monday 16th December 2019.
Sir Hans was a biochemist whose main achievements were elucidation of the mechanisms and regulation of several metabolic sequences, the discovery of the glyoxylate cycle and recognition of anaplerotic processes.
At the age of 11, Hans moved to England, a refugee of Nazi Germany. He was educated at various boarding schools and at the University of Sheffield, from which he graduated with BSc and PhD degrees. He graduated with a D.Sc from Brasenose in 1960, and was made an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1982.
After seven years of postdoctoral research in the United States and at the University of Oxford, he served successively as Professor of Biochemistry at the universities of Leicester (1960–1975) and Cambridge (1975–1995). From 1982–1995, he was also Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Later in life, he was a University Professor and Professor of Biology at Boston University.
Hans was knighted in 1978 and received 11 honorary doctorates, as well as membership or honorary memberships of many national academies and professional scientific societies. He was awarded the UK Biochemical Society’s Colworth Medal and the Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The funeral will take place at noon on Friday 20th December 2019 at the Falmouth Jewish Congregation, 7 Hatchville Road, East Falmouth, Massachusetts. Lady Kornberg has kindly suggested that donations may be made in lieu of flowers to the Sir Hans Kornberg Travel Award, a link for which can be found here.