Alan Eddy
Professor Alfred Alan Eddy (4 November 1926 – 24 October 2017), usually known as Alan Eddy, was a biochemist who was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) between 1959 and 1994.[1]
Alfred Alan Eddy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 November 1926 St Just in Penwith, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 24 October 2017 (aged 90) |
| Alma mater | Exeter College, Oxford |
| Spouse | Susan Ruth Slade-Jones |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology of yeast, trans-membrane transport |
| Institutions | Brewing Industry Research Foundation UMIST University of Manchester |
| Thesis | The Physical chemistry of bacterial growth : the role of alkali metal ions in bacterial metabolism (1951) |
| Doctoral advisor | Cyril Norman Hinshelwood |
| Doctoral students | John Skehel |
Early life and education
Eddy was born on 4 November 1926 in St Just, Cornwall, the son of Alfred and Ellen Eddy.[1] After completing his secondary education at Devonport High School for Boys, he attended Exeter College, Oxford, graduating with a 1st Class Honours degree in 1949.[1] He was awarded his DPhil in 1951, supervised by Cyril Hinshelwood.[2][3][1]
Career
In 1953, Eddy joined the Brewing Industry Research Foundation in Nutfield.[1] Using snail gastric extracts Eddy, in 1957, was able to prepare protoplasts/sphaeroplasts of the yeast S. pastorianus; the ability to produce cell wall-free yeasts was important in facilitating much of later yeast research.[4] In 1959, he was appointed to the first chair of Biochemistry at UMIST; he oversaw the creation of the Department of Biochemistry from the previously existing Brewing Chemistry department.[5] He held this position until his retirement in 1994.[1] He was Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester until his death in 2017.[6]
Eddy's research interests were diverse, but his major contributions were in the biology of trans-membrane transport, in particular the functioning of proton pumps and symport systems.[7]
Personal life
Eddy lived in Disley, Cheshire with his wife Susan Ruth (née Slade-Jones), whom he married in 1954. They had two sons.[1]
He died on 24 October 2017 at the age of 90.[8]
References
- 'EDDY, Prof. Alfred Alan', Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2010 (accessed 27 September 2011).
- Eddy, Alan (1951). The Physical chemistry of bacterial growth: the role of alkali metal ions in bacterial metabolism (Thesis). Thesis DPhil--University of Oxford.
- Eddy, Dan (29 November 2017). "Alan Eddy obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
- Eddy, A.A., Williamson, D.H. (1957), A method of isolating protoplasts from yeast, Nature 179: 1252–1253.
- Wilson, pp. 16, 26
- "Personal Webpages". The University of Manchester. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
- Eddy AA, Hopkins P, Shaw R Proton and charge circulation through substrate symports in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: non-classical behaviour of the cytosine symport. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology [1994, 48:123-139](PMID 7597638)
- "Alan Eddy obituary". The Guardian. 29 November 2017. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023.
Bibliography
- Wilson, D. (2008) Reconfiguring Biological Sciences in the Late Twentieth Century: a Study of the University of Manchester. Manchester University