David Mervyn Blow

David Mervyn Blow FRS FInstP^[6] (27 June 1931 – 8 June 2004)^[1][7][8] was an influential British biophysicist. He was best known for the development of X-ray crystallography, a technique used to determine the molecular structures of tens of thousands of biological molecules. This has been extremely important to the pharmaceutical industry.^[9]

David Mervyn Blow FRS FInstP
Born	(1931-06-27)27 June 1931 Birmingham, England
Died	8 June 2004(2004-06-08) (aged 72) Appledore, Torridge (near Bideford), Devon, England
Education	Kingswood School[1]
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)[1]
Known for	Haemoglobin X-ray crystallography
Spouse	Mavis Sears ​ (m. 1955)​ [1]
Awards	Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1987)
Scientific career
Fields	Biophysicist
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology National Institutes of Health Imperial College London MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Thesis	X-ray analysis of haemoglobin : determination of phase angles by isomorphous substitution (1958)
Doctoral advisor	Max Perutz[2]
Other academic advisors	Alexander Rich[2]
Doctoral students	Richard Henderson[3][4] Paul Sigler[2] Alice Vrielink[5] Gérard Bricogne
Other notable students	Thomas A. Steitz Brian Matthews[2]

Early life and education

Blow was born in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset and the University of Cambridge where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His PhD was awarded in 1958 for X-ray analysis of haemoglobin supervised by Max Perutz at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).^[10][11]

Career and research

Following graduation from Cambridge, Blow spent two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded by the Fulbright Foundation^[1]

In 1954, he met Max Perutz;^[12] they began to study a new technique wherein X-rays would be passed through a protein sample at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. This eventually led to the creation of a three-dimensional structure of haemoglobin.^[13] Blow was appointed professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977. His doctoral students include Richard Henderson,^[3][4] Paul Sigler,^[2] and Alice Vrielink.^[14]

Awards and honours

Blow was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1987.^[1]

Personal life

Blow married Mavis Sears in 1955, and they had two children, a son Julian and a daughter Elizabeth.^[1][8] He died of lung cancer at the age of 72, in Appledore, Torridge (near Bideford), Devon.^[7][8]