David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere, KBE, FRS (7 March 1924 – 23 February 1999) was a pioneering, British

structural biologist Structural biology is a field that is many centuries old which, and as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every le ...

and an influential figure in science and government.

Research

Phillips lead the team which determined in atomic detail the structure of the

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

lysozyme Lysozyme (EC 3.2.1.17, muramidase, ''N''-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase; systematic name peptidoglycan ''N''-acetylmuramoylhydrolase) is an antimicrobial enzyme produced by animals that forms part of the innate immune system. It is a glycoside ...

, which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of the Royal Institution in London in 1965. Lysozyme, which was discovered in 1922 by Alexander Fleming, is found in tear drops, nasal mucus, gastric secretions and egg white. Lysozyme exhibits some antibacterial activity so that the discovery of its structure and mode of action were key scientific objectives. David Phillips solved the structure of lysozyme and also explained the mechanism of its action in destroying certain bacteria by a brilliant application of the technique of

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...

, a technique to which he had been introduced as a PhD student at the University in Cardiff, and to which he later made major instrumental contributions.

Education and career

David was the son of Charles Harry Phillips, a master tailor and Methodist preacher, and his wife, Edith Harriet Finney, a midwife. His mother's father was Samuel Finney, a coal miner, union official and Member of Parliament. He was born in Ellesmere, Shropshire which gave rise to his title Baron Phillips of Ellesmere. He was educated at Oswestry High School for Boys and then at the University College of South Wales and Monmouth where he studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, electrical engineering, and mathematics. His degree was interrupted between 1944 and 1947 for service in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

as a radar officer on ''HMS Illustrious''. He returned to

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

to complete his degree (BSc in 1948) and then undertook postgraduate studies with Arthur Wilson (crystallographer). He gained his doctorate (PhD) in 1951. After a postdoctoral period at the National Research Council in Ottawa (1951–55) he joined the Royal Institution. In 1966 he became the Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Zoology at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

where he remained until his retirement in 1990. During that time he became 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 ...

and then its Biological Secretary from 1976 to 1983.

Family

In 1960 he married Diana Hutchinson.

Honours and awards

Phillips was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

in the 1979 Birthday Honours, invested as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the

1989 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1989 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

, and created a Life Peer as Baron Phillips of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the

County of Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to t ...

on 14 July 1994. In the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

, he chaired the select committee on Science and Technology and he is credited with getting Parliament onto the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...

. In 1994, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

. In 1980 he was invited to deliver a series of Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on ''The Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules.''

Death

Lord Phillips died of cancer, on 23 February 1999.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, David 1924 births 1999 deaths 20th-century British biologists Structural biologists Deaths from prostate cancer Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Fullerian Professors of Physiology Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Crossbench life peers Scientists from Shropshire People from Ellesmere, Shropshire Royal Medal winners Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates Knights Bachelor Presidents of the British Crystallographic Association Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences