Joseph Fruton
| Joseph S. Fruton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 14, 1912 , Poland |
| Died | July 29, 2007 (aged 95) New Haven United States |
| Nationality | Polish, American |
| Fields | biochemistry, history of science |
| Institutions | Rockefeller Institute Yale University |
| Alma mater | Columbia University 1934 |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Thacher Clarke |
| Notable awards | Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1944) |
Joseph Stewart Fruton (May 14, 1912 – July 29, 2007), born Joseph Fruchtgarten, was a Jewish Polish-American biochemist and historian of science. His most significant scientific work involved synthetic peptides and their interactions with proteases; with his wife Sofia Simmonds he also published an influential textbook, General Biochemistry (1953; 1958). From 1970 until his death, Fruton worked extensively on the history of science, particularly the history of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Joseph Fruchtgarten was born in , Poland; his father Shama Nuta (Charles) Fruchtgarten was a grain merchant, and his mother Ella (Aisenstadt) Fruchtgarten was a French teacher. Like many other Polish Jews, the Fruchtgartens immigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of World War I. They lived in New York City from 1913 to 1917, and in April 1917 they moved to Minsk (then occupied by the Red Army in the midst of the Russian Civil War). Between 1917 and 1923, Fruchtgarten attended school intermittently, moving from Minsk to Siedlce to Warsaw to Berlin, and learning French, German and Latin (in addition to Polish and English). In 1923, the Fruchtgartens returned to New York and changed their name to Fruton to avoid being targets of anti-Semitism. Joseph Fruton followed his father in rejecting religion, but learned early on "not to advertise either [his] Jewishness or [his] atheism."
After a few months at De Witt Clinton High School, Fruton joined the first class of students at James Madison High School. He graduated summa cum laude in 1927, excelling particularly in chemistry. He applied to Columbia University, and after an initial rejection—possibly because he was only 15 at the time, possibly because the school had already admitted the quota of New York Jews—his mother convinced an admissions official to reverse the decision. Inspired by the character Max Gottlieb from the Sinclair Lewis novel Arrowsmith, Fruton planned his Columbia education around becoming a scientist. The lectures and lab-work of organic chemist John M. Nelson turned Fruton on to biochemistry. He received his degree in chemistry in 1931, and entered graduate school in the Department of Biological Chemistry in the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, working under Hans Thacher Clarke. Fruton's PhD work focused on "the lability of cystine in alkali", although he developed a broad interest in the range of biochemistry-related research being pursued at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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