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Peter D. Mitchell

Peter D. Mitchell was an English biochemist.

He was born in Mitcham, Surrey on 29 September 1920. His parents were Christopher Gibbs Mitchell, a civil servant, and Kate Beatrice Dorothy (née) Taplin. He was educated at Queen's College , Taunton, and at Jesus College, Cambridge where he studied the Natural Sciences Tripos specialising in biochemistry.

He accepted a research post in the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge, in 1942, and received the degree of Ph.D. in early 1951 for work on the mode of action of penicillin. In 1955 he was invited by Professor Michael Swann to set up a biochemical research unit, called the Chemical Biology Unit, in the Department of Zoology, Edinburgh University, where he was appointed to a Senior Lectureship in 1961, to a Readership in 1962, and where he remained ill health led to his resignation in 1963.

From then to 1965, he supervised supervised the restoration of a Regency-fronted Mansion, known as Glynn House, near Bodmin, Cornwall - adapting a major part of it for use as a research laboratory. He and his former research colleague, Jennifer Moyle founded a charitable company, known as Glynn Research Ltd. , to promote fundamental biological research at Glynn House and they embarked on a programme of research on chemiosmotic reactions and reaction systems.

Peter Mitchell died on 10 April, 1992.

Last updated: 05-06-2005 14:48:07