Quentin Gibson

Quentin Howieson Gibson FRS^[2] (9 December 1918 – 16 March 2011) was a Scottish American physiologist, and professor at the University of Sheffield,^[3] and Cornell University.^[4]

Professor Quentin Gibson FRS
Born	Quentin Howieson Gibson (1918-12-09)9 December 1918 Aberdeen, Scotland
Died	6 March 2011(2011-03-06) (aged 92)
Citizenship	British, American
Education	Queen's University Belfast
Spouse	Audrey Jane Pinsent
Children	4
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemistry of heme proteins
Institutions	University of Sheffield Cornell University University of Pennsylvania
Notable students	Keith Moffat[1]

Education

Gibson earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1944 and a Ph.D. in 1946, from Queen's University Belfast.^{[citation needed]}

Life

Gibson taught at the University of Sheffield from 1947. Whilst at the University of Sheffield Gibson met Audrey Jane Pinsent in 1951. They married, started a family, and eventually had four children. Jane Gibson continued working part-time whilst raising her family. In 1963 they emigrated to the United States, where she took up positions, first at the University of Pennsylvania.^[5] He succeeded (Sir) Hans Krebs as the Head of the Department of Biochemistry in 1955. In 1963 he left Sheffield to become a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the Greater Philadelphia Professor at Cornell University, from 1965 to 1996. In 1982, he became a U.S. citizen.^[6]

Research

Hemoglobin

Gibson started his career with studies of hemoglobin,^{[7] [8]} and continued with much other work on heme proteins.

Medical and physiological work

In keeping with his medical qualifications, much of Gibson's early work^{[9] [10]} had medical or physiological relevance.^[11]

Cooperativity

During the period when protein and enzyme cooperativity was at the center of biochemical interest Gibson studied it in the context of abnormal hemoglobins.^{[12] [13]}

Rapid reactions

Gibson made major contributions to the development of methods for studying rapid reactions,^[14] and their application to hemoglobin.^[15]

Other proteins

Other work concerned enzymes such as "diaphorase",^[16][17] glucose oxidase,^[18] cytochrome oxidase^[19][20] and peroxidase.^[21]

Thermodynamics

Much of Gibson's work concerned questions of thermodynamics and equilibria, and in that context he participated in discussions about how to present thermodynamic data.^[22]

Awards and honours

Gibson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1969.^[2] He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry from 1975 to 1994.^[23]