Aaron Klug

 ( 1926 Births ) 

Sir Aaron Klug (11 August 1926 – 20 November 2018) was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.

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Early life and education Klug was born in Želva, in Lithuania, to Lithuanian Jews parents Lazar, a cattleman, and Bella (née Silin) Klug, with whom he emigrated to South Africa at the age of two. He was educated at Durban High School. Paul de Kruif's 1926 book, Microbe Hunters, aroused his interest in microbiology.

Klug was part of the Hashomer Hatzair Jewish Zionist youth movement in South Africa.

Chaim Shur (1998). 9789657014172, Members of Hashomer Hatzair South Africa and Havazelet in conjunction with Yad Yaari. . ISBN 9789657014172

He started to study microbiology, but then moved into physics and maths, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. He studied physics under Reginald W. James and obtained his Master of Science degree at the University of Cape Town. He was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which enabled him to move to England, completing his PhD in research physics at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1953.

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Career and research Following his PhD, Klug moved to Birkbeck College in the University of London in late 1953, and started working with chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin in the lab of crystallographer John Bernal. This experience aroused a lifelong interest in the study of viruses, and during his time there he made discoveries in the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus. In 1962 he moved to the newly built Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. Over the following decade Klug used methods from X-ray diffraction, microscopy and structural modelling to develop crystallographic electron microscopy in which a sequence of two-dimensional images of crystals taken from different angles are combined to produce three-dimensional images of the target. He studied the structure of transfer RNA, and found what is known as zinc fingers as well as the neurofibrils in Alzheimer's disease.

Also in 1962, Klug became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was later made an Honorary Fellow of the college.

Between 1986 and 1996, Klug was director of the LMB. He served on the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering. He also served on the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute. He and Dai Rees approached the Wellcome Trust to found the Wellcome Sanger Institute, which was a key player in the Human Genome Project.

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Awards and honours Klug was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1981. He was knight Bachelor by Elizabeth II in 1988. In 1969 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), the oldest national Royal Society in the world. He was elected its President (PRS) from 1995 to 2000. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1995 – as is customary for Presidents of the Royal Society. His certificate of election to the Royal Society reads:

Klug was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society

In 2000, Klug received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2005, he was awarded South Africa's Order of Mapungubwe (gold) for exceptional achievements in medical science. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), also in 2005.

In 2013, Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev dedicated their centre for structural biology in Klug's name, Aaron Klug Integrated Centre for Biomolecular Structure. He, his family and the then-British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, were in attendance. Klug was associated with the university and the town of Be'er Sheva, having visited them numerous times.

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Personal life Klug married Liebe Bobrow in 1948; they had two sons, one of whom predeceased them in 2000. He died on 20 November 2018 in Cambridge.

Though Klug had faced discrimination in South Africa, he remained religious and according to Sydney Brenner, he became more religious in his older age.Hargittai, Istva'n & Magdolna. 2006. Candid Science VI: More Conversations with Famous Scientists. Imperial College Press, p. 33

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See also

• List of presidents of the Royal Society
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

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Further reading

• Aaron Klug tells his life story at Web of Stories
• Aaron Klug interviews with Harry Kroto
• Aaron Klug article by Bob Weintraub, Chemistry in Israel, issue 11, Dec. 2002, p10.
• Aaron Klug interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 11 December 2007 (video)
• Listen to an oral history interview with Aaron Klug – a life story interview recorded for National Life Stories at the British Library

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External links

• The Papers of Sir Aaron Klug held at Churchill Archives Centre

Categories: 1926 Births, 2018 Deaths, Academics Of Birkbeck, University Of London, Alumni Of Trinity College, Cambridge, British Nobel Laureates, British Biophysicists, English Nobel Laureates, Fellows Of Peterhouse, Cambridge, Fellows Of The Academy Of Medical Sciences, Fellows Of The Royal Microscopical Society, Foreign Associates Of The National Academy Of Sciences, Jewish Biologists, Jewish British Physicists, Jewish Nobel Laureates, Knights Bachelor, Lithuanian Emigrants To South Africa, Lithuanian Emigrants To The United Kingdom, Lithuanian Jews, Lithuanian Nobel Laureates, Members Of The French Academy Of Sciences, Members Of The Order Of Merit, Naturalised Citizens Of The United Kingdom, Nobel Laureates In Chemistry, Presidents Of The Royal Society, Recipients Of The Copley Medal, South African Emigrants To The United Kingdom, South African Nobel Laureates, Scripps Research, University Of Cape Town Alumni, University Of The Witwatersrand Alumni, Winners Of The Heineken Prize, Members Of The American Philosophical Society, Alumni Of Durban High School

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