Kendrew, Sir John Cowdery

Kendrew, Sir John Cowdery

(born March 24, 1917, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died Aug. 23, 1997, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British biochemist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and as a Cambridge fellow (1947–75) went on to study the structure of proteins. He determined the structure of the muscle protein myoglobin, which stores oxygen for use by the muscles. Using X-ray diffraction techniques and computers, he devised a three-dimensional model of the arrangement of the amino acid units in the myoglobin molecule, an achievement for which he shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Max Ferdinand Perutz.