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Frederick Gowland Hopkins Facts & Worksheets

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was an English biochemist who received the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of essential nutrient factors in animal diets.

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Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was an English biochemist who received the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of essential nutrient factors in animal diets. These nutrient factors are now known as vitamins.

See the fact file below for more information on the Frederick Gowland Hopkins or alternatively, you can download our 22-page Frederick Gowland Hopkins worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

  • Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born on June 20, 1861, in Eastbourne, Sussex, England.
  • His father, Frederick Hopkins, was a bookseller who had a keen interest in science. His mother was Elizabeth Gowland.
  • When Frederick was still an infant, his father died.
  • At a very young age, Hopkins showed more of an interest in literature than in science.
  • His love for literature contributed greatly to his scientific work later on.
  • His mother gifted him a microscope when he was a young boy.
  • In 1871, he and his mother moved to Enfield to live with his maternal grandmother and his uncle in Enfield, North London.
  • He attended the City of London School, then transferred to a private school when he was fourteen years old.
  • Hopkins excelled academically and received notable prizes such as the first-class prize in chemistry in 1874.
  • At seventeen, he went to work as an insurance clerk for six months.
  • After his job at the insurance company, he enrolled at the City College of London to study chemistry.
  • Showing much promise in chemistry, he wrote a paper on the purple vapor produced and discharged by the Bombardier beetle, also at age seventeen.
  • At City College of London, Hopkins was mentored by and worked as an assistant to Sir Thomas Stevenson, a lecturer at Guy’s Hospital on forensic medicine.
  • In 1888, he began to attend Guy’s Hospital as a medical student.
  • He was awarded the Sir William Gull studentship, honors in Materia Medica, and a Gold Medal in Chemistry.
  • He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Science in 1890 and his medical degree in 1894.

TEACHING CAREER

  • Upon his graduation, he went on to teach toxicology and physiology at Guy’s Hospital, where he taught for four years.
  • He was also in charge of the Clinical Research Association’s Chemical Department at Guy’s Hospital for two years while he was teaching.
  • In 1896, together with HW Brook, Hopkins published his observations on the halogen derivatives of proteins.
  • While he was taking part in a meeting at the Physiology Society at Cambridge in 1898, Hopkins met Sir Michael Foster who invited him to be a lecturer on physiological chemistry at Emmanuel College at Cambridge University. Hopkins accepted the offer.
  • On the side, he offered tutorial and supervision services to undergraduates to supplement his income at the University.
  • In 1902, he earned a doctorate in physiology from the University of London.
  • He became Cambridge’s first biochemistry professor.
  • He headed the Institute of Biochemistry until his retirement in 1943.

MAJOR DISCOVERIES

  • Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was a scientist who made more than just one major discovery in his career.
  • In 1901, Hopkins, together with his colleagues, isolated the amino acid tryptophan from protein.
  • In an experiment on the effect of tryptophan when fed to mice, they discovered that mice who were not fed tryptophan in their diet did not gain sufficient weight.
  • Their studies laid the foundation for studying the role of isolated chemicals in metabolic reactions.
  • In 1906, they demonstrated that tryptophan and other essential amino acids cannot be produced from other nutrients by certain animals.
  • In 1907, Hopkins and Sir Walter Fletcher studied muscle contraction, which set the groundwork of modern understanding of the chemistry of muscular contraction.
  • They demonstrated that when muscles contract and are oxygen depleted, lactic acid gets accumulated.
  • In 1912, Hopkins published the work for which he is most known: “accessory food factors” later named vitamins.
  • The importance of these accessory food factors was shown in a series of animal feeding experiments where the animals’ diets consisted of pure proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and water.
  • The mixture failed to support animal growth without the missing “food factors”.
  • In 1921, Hopkins isolated from living animal tissue a structure with three amino acids linked in sequence.
  • The structure was a tripeptide named glutathione, which is a major antioxidant important for oxygen utilization in the cell.

AWARDS AND HONORS

  • In 1905, Hopkins was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), the most prestigious scientific organisation of Great Britain, then president of the FRS in 1930.
  • Hopkins was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 1924.
  • In 1925, he was knighted by King George V.
  • He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929.

PERSONAL LIFE AND DEATH

  • He married Jessie Anne Stevens, a nurse, in 1898, and their marriage resulted in three children.
  • Throughout his life, Hopkins juggled many jobs to keep afloat financially.
  • In 1910, his health began to decline due to all the work he was doing.
  • Hopkins died at the age of 86 in 1947.

Frederick Gowland Hopkins Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Frederick Gowland Hopkins across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Frederick Gowland Hopkins worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins who was an English biochemist who received the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of essential nutrient factors in animal diets. These nutrient factors are now known as vitamins.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Frederick Gowland Hopkins Facts
  • Introductory Page
  • Important Terms
  • A Biochemist’s Qualities
  • Sequencing Events
  • Major Discoveries
  • True or False?
  • Pioneering Biochemists
  • Quote Analysis
  • Questions for Discussion
  • Honoring Hopkins

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins discover?

In 1914, Sir Hopkins founded the field of biological chemistry and became Cambridge’s first Professor of Biochemistry. For his pioneering work on growth-stimulating vitamins, he was awarded the Nobel Prize alongside fellow researcher Christiaan Eijkman who identified an antineuritic vitamin.

How did Hopkins discover vitamins?

When Hopkins noticed that rats weren’t growing on a diet of artificial milk, he realized there must be something else needed for growth than just protein and fat. He thus coined the term ‘missing factors’ in order to describe this phenomenon. Even with the addition of mineral salts, no animal can survive without aid from other sources.

Where was Frederick Hopkins born?

Born on June 20, 1861, in Eastbourne, England, Frederick Gowland Hopkins was the son of a passionate bookseller from Bishopsgate Street in London. Unfortunately for young Gowland, his father passed away when he had only just been born.

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