William Robert Middlebrook papers

Description

Professor William Robert 'Bob' Middlebrook, trained as a protein chemist and worked in the United States 1953-1968.


Contains working correspondence, research notes and data. Within the correpondence are two letters from Francis Crick, written to Middlebrook just after he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Biography or history

William Robert Middlebrook was born on 25 November 1915. He studied Chemistry at the University of Leeds then worked as a researcher at the Wool Industries Research Association. In 1951 he gained his PhD in Biochemistry (Protein Chemistry) and worked as a Nuffield Research Fellow in the Department of Biomolecular Structure, Leeds University. In 1953 he was employed by Gates & Cirelin Laboratories of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. By February 1954 he had moved to the Department of Chemistry, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. In November of that year he moved to the Institute of Muscle Research, Woods Hole, Massachusetts where he stayed for the next eight years. In April 1962 he was appointed as a Research Associate at the Department of Cytology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, initially for two years under the sponsorship of Dr Andrew Szent-Gyorgyi.


In April 1964 his appointment was renewed for three years. In September 1964, his application for Chair of Biology at the University of York was turned down. By February 1966 he was in the process of looking for other positions as Dartmouth Medical School was 'in a process of disintegration'. In September of that year he was appointed as a Research Assoicate in Biology for the Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, for an eight month period, subject to renewal. His position was renewed for a further two years until 1968. He was an honorary lecturer at the University of Leeds in the academic year 1971-72. Middlebrook died in 1982.

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