Sir John Kendrew
Sir John Kendrew was President of St John’s college from 1981 – 1987.
In 1946-47 he and Max Perutz founded the Medical Research Council Unit for Molecular Biology at Cambridge. They used the technique of X-ray crystallography to study the structures of proteins, with Kendrew aiming to determine the structure of myoglobin. By 1960, with the use of special diffraction techniques and the help of computers to analyse the data, Kendrew was able to devise a 3-D model of the arrangement of the amino acid units in the myoglobin molecule, which stores oxygen in muscle cells. It was the first time this had been achieved for any protein.
As a result, in 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry along with Max Perutz. He was knighted in 1974.
On his death in August 1997, John Kendrew left a substantial legacy to St John's College. It is in recognition of his role as both President and benefactor that the new quadrangle is named in his honour.
