Quentin Howieson Gibson FRS (9 December 1918 – 16 March 2011) was a Scottish American

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

, and professor at

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

, and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Education

Gibson earned a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

degree in 1944 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1946, from

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

Life

Gibson taught at the

from 1947. Whilst at the University of Sheffield Gibson met Audrey Jane Pinsent in 1951. They married, started a family, and eventually had four children. Jane Gibson continued working part-time whilst raising her family. In 1963 they emigrated to the United States, where she took up positions, first at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He succeeded (Sir) Hans Krebs as the Head of the Department of Biochemistry in 1955. In 1963 he left Sheffield to become a professor at the

. He was the Greater Philadelphia Professor at

, from 1965 to 1996. In 1982, he became a U.S. citizen.

Research

Hemoglobin

Gibson started his career with studies of

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocyte ...

, and continued with much other work on heme proteins.

Medical and physiological work

In keeping with his medical qualifications, much of Gibson's early work had medical or physiological relevance.

Cooperativity

During the period when protein and enzyme cooperativity was at the center of biochemical interest Gibson studied it in the context of abnormal hemoglobins.

Rapid reactions

Gibson made major contributions to the development of methods for studying rapid reactions, and their application to hemoglobin.

Other proteins

Other work concerned enzymes such as "

diaphorase Diaphorase may refer to: * Cytochrome b5 reductase, an enzyme * NADH dehydrogenase, an enzyme * NADPH dehydrogenase In enzymology, a NADPH dehydrogenase () is an enzyme that catalysis, catalyzes the chemical reaction :NADPH + H+ + acceptor \right ...

glucose oxidase The glucose oxidase enzyme (GOx or GOD) also known as notatin (EC number 1.1.3.4) is an oxidoreductase that catalyses the oxidation of glucose to hydrogen peroxide and D-glucono-δ-lactone. This enzyme is produced by certain species of fungi and ...

, cytochrome oxidase and peroxidase.

Thermodynamics

Much of Gibson's work concerned questions of thermodynamics and equilibria, and in that context he participated in discussions about how to present thermodynamic data.

Awards and honours

Gibson was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1969. He was also a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, and an associate editor of the ''

Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in ...

'' from 1975 to 1994.

References

External links

J. Woodland Hastings and John S. Olson, "Quentin H. Gibson", ''Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences'' (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Quentin 1918 births 2011 deaths Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Academics of the University of Sheffield University of Pennsylvania faculty Cornell University faculty American physiologists Scottish emigrants to the United States Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society