Sir John Warcup Cornforth was awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions" and the molecular structure of cholesterol. He shared this prize with Vladimir Prelog, whose research focused on the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Although profoundly deaf by the age of 20, Cornforth's research into steroids led him to discover what ultimately would prove to be a key reaction in steroid synthesis.
The press release by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 17, 1975 described Cornforth's Nobel Prizewinning research: "This subject is difficult to explain to the layman as it is a question of geometry in three dimensions; it is concerned with the delicate mechanism of important reactions of biological systems, where a group of atoms takes the place of a certain hydrogen atom among two or three, which may appear to be equivalent. The problem is to decide which of the hydrogen atoms is replaced and if nearby groups retain their positions or if they are rearranged in some way. The enzyme leads the process in a quite uniform way. Without this guidance, chaos would break out in the biological system."
Cornforth was born on September 7, 1917 in Sydney, Australia, the second of four children. His father, the son of an English-born Oxford graduate, married his mother, the daughter of a German minister of religion who immigrated to New South Wales in 1832. Growing up in New South Wales, he lived in both the big city of Sydney and the rural community of Armidale. By the age of 10, the first signs of deafness were becoming obvious. By 16, he could no longer hear lectures, and by 20, he was completely deaf. This "handicap" may have been the catalyst for his tremendous contribution to chemistry, for he writes in an autobiographical sketch, "...I was attracted by laboratory work in organic chemistry (which I had done in an impoverished laboratory at home since the age of 14) and by the availability of the original chemical literature."
His hearing was sufficient to allow him to attend Sydney Boys' High School where he was highly influenced by a young instructor, Leonard Basser, toward the study of chemistry. By the time he completed university in 1937, Cornforth had earned first-class honors and a university medal. A year of postgraduate research won him an 1851 Exhibition scholarship--one of two such scholarships awarded each year‐to Oxford University in London, England, under the supervision of Robert Robinson, the 1947 Nobel Prizewinner in Chemistry. The second scholarship was awarded to Rita Harradence, also from Sydney and also an organic chemist. The two researchers worked closely together, married in 1941, and ultimately had three children and two grandchildren. Of his alliance with his wife, Cornforth writes, "Throughout my scientific career, my wife has been my most constant collaborator. Her experimental skill made major contributions to the work; she has eased for me beyond measure the difficulties of communication that accompany deafness; her encouragement and fortitude have been my strongest supports."
As the pair left Sydney for Oxford, World War II broke out and, after completing their research into steroid synthesis for their Ph.D.s, the joined Robinson in his work on penicillin, a major chemical project in his laboratory during the war. Cornforth contributed to the compilation of The Chemistry of Penicillin, a written record of the major international focus on developing the drug, which was published in 1949 by Princeton University Press. However, after the war, he returned to his work on the synthesis of steroids, which ultimately uncovered the principle reaction in the synthesis process. Collaborating again with Robinson on the scientific staff of the Medical Research Council at its National Institute at Hampstead and then Mill Hill, he completed the first total synthesis of the non-aromatic steroids simultaneously.
It was at the institute that he began collaboration with biological scientists, in particular, a George Popják. This alliance initiated a combined research effort through both chemistry and biochemistry into the structure of cholesterol, ultimately leading to the carbon-by-carbon degradation of its 19-ring structure. They also identified the arrangement of acetic acid molecules, the building blocks of the system, through the use of radioactive tracers.
In 1962, Cornforth and Popják left the Medical Research Council and became co-directors of the Milstead Laboratory of Chemical Enzymology where they developed the study of stereochemistry of enzymic reactions stimulated by isotopic substitution. Collaboration with a German researcher in 1967 led to the understanding of the "asymmetric methyl group," opening the way for similar research in many other biological arenas.
Cornforth left Milstead in 1975 to become Royal Society Research Professor the University of Sussex. His outstanding achievements have earned him voluminous awards and honors. These include election to the Royal Society in 1953 and being awarded the Society's Davy Medal in 1968; the Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize, Chemical Society (1953); a joint award with Popják of the Biochemical Society's Ciba Medal (1965); the American Chemical Society's Ernest Guenther Award (1968); Australian Man of the Year (1975); Foreign Member, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (1978); and the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (1982).
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