Arthur Harden


Sir Arthur Harden, FRS was a British biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes. He was a founding member of the Biochemical Society and editor of its journal for 25 years.

Biography

Early years

Arthur was born to Scottish Presbyterian businessman Albert Tyas Harden and Eliza Macalister. His early education was at a private school in Victoria Park run by Dr Ernest Adam. He went to study in 1877 at a Tettenhall College, Staffordshire, and entered Owens College in 1882, now the University of Manchester, in 1882, graduating in 1885. He studied chemistry under Professor Roscoe at Owens College and was influenced by J.B. Cohen.

Research

In 1886 Harden was awarded the Dalton Scholarship in Chemistry and spent a year working with Otto Fischer at Erlangen where he worked on the synthesis of β-nitroso-α-naphthylamine and studied its properties. After receiving a Ph.D. he returned to Manchester as a lecturer and demonstrator and H.B. Dixon and taught along with Sir Philip Hartog. He researched the life and work of Daltonduring these years. In 1895 he wrote a textbook on Practical Organic Chemistry along with F.C. Garrett. Harden continued to work at Manchester until 1897 when he was appointed chemist to the newly founded British Institute of Preventive Medicine, which later became the Lister Institute. He earned the degree Doctor of Science from the Victoria University in June 1902. Five years later, in 1907 he was appointed Head of the Biochemical Department, a position which he held until his retirement in 1930.
At Manchester, Harden had studied the action of light on mixtures of carbon dioxide and chlorine, and when he entered the Institute he applied his methods to the investigation of biological phenomena such as the chemical action of bacteria and alcoholic fermentation. He studied the breakdown products of glucose and the chemistry of the yeast cell, and produced a series of papers on the antiscorbutic and anti-neuritic vitamins.
Harden was knighted in 1926, and received several honorary doctorates. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he received the Davy Medal in 1935.

Personal life

Harden married Georgina Sydney Bridge in 1900 and they had no children.