Racker, Efraim

Racker, Efraim (1913–91) biochemist; born in Neu Sandez, Poland. A Jewish physician, he fled the Nazis and went to Wales to study brain metabolism (1938–40). He came to the U.S.A. to be a research associate at the University of Minnesota (1941–42), completed his medical residency at Harlem Hospital, N.Y. (1942–44), then moved to New York University (1944–52) and Yale (1952–54). He was chief of nutrition and physiology at the Public Health Research Institute, N.Y. (1943–66), before joining Cornell (1966–91). A pioneer in the biochemistry of cancer, he made major contributions to studies of cellular respiration, enzyme activity, and membrane physiology.