David Chilton Phillips

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Phillips of Ellesmere

| birth_name = David Chilton Phillips

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KBE|FRS|size=100}}

| image = File:David_Chilton_Phillips.jpg

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1924|3|7}}

| birth_place = Ellesmere, Shropshire, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1999|2|23|1924|3|7}}

| death_place = Royal Marsden Hospital, London, England

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| workplaces = {{Plainlist|

University of Cardiff (1942–44, 1947–51)
National Research Council (Canada) (1951–55)
Royal Institution (1956–66)
University of Oxford}} (1966–90)

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| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|

Louise Johnson
Gregory A. Petsko
E. Yvonne Jones{{cite thesis|degree=DPhil|publisher=University of Oxford|title=Structural and dynamic studies on biological macromolecules|first=Edith Yvonne|last=Jones|year=1985|url=http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph016156333|oclc=863529476}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Michael Sternberg{{cite thesis |degree=DPhil |first=Michael Joseph Ezra |last=Sternberg |title=Studies of protein conformation |publisher=University of Oxford |year=1977 |url=http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.473833 |author-link=Michael Sternberg |access-date=28 February 2014 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622191834/https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.473833 |url-status=dead }}
Ian Wilson

}}

| notable_students = Janet Thornton (postdoc){{Cite journal

| pmid = 633372

| year = 1978

| last1 = Phillips

| first1 = D. C.

| author-link1 = David Chilton Phillips

| title = An analysis of the structure of triose phosphate isomerase and its comparison with lactate dehydrogenase

| journal = Journal of Molecular Biology

| volume = 119

| issue = 2

| pages = 329–51

| last2 = Sternberg

| first2 = M. J.

| author-link2 = Michael Sternberg

| last3 = Thornton

| first3 = J. M.

| author-link3 = Janet Thornton

| last4 = Wilson

| first4 = I. A.

| doi=10.1016/0022-2836(78)90440-0

}}{{Cite journal

| pmid = 902882

| year = 1977

| last1 = Phillips

| first1 = D. C.

| title = An analysis of the three-dimensional structure of chicken triose phosphate isomerase

| journal = Biochemical Society Transactions

| volume = 5

| issue = 3

| pages = 642–7

| last2 = Rivers

| first2 = P. S.

| last3 = Sternberg

| first3 = M. J.

| last4 = Thornton

| first4 = J. M.

| last5 = Wilson

| first5 = I. A.

| doi=10.1042/bst0050642

}}

| known_for = Determination of the structure and catalytic mechanism of lysozyme. Contributions to the techniques of X-ray crystallography. Public service in science and government.

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| awards = {{Plainlist|

Feldberg Prize (1968){{cite web |title=Prizewinners of the Feldberg Foundation |url=http://www.feldbergfoundation.org/prizewinners/previous/ |website=Feldberg Foundation |access-date=31 August 2020 |archive-date=14 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214010048/http://www.feldbergfoundation.org/prizewinners/previous/ |url-status=dead }}
CIBA Medal (1970){{cite web |title=Recipients of The Portland Press Excellence in Science Award |url=https://www.biochemistry.org/grants-and-awards/awards/the-portland-press-excellence-in-science-award/ |website=Biochemical Society |access-date=31 August 2020}}
Sir Hans Krebs Medal (1971)
Royal Medal (1975){{cite web |title=Royal Society Royal Medal Winners |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dsunM9ukGLgaW3HdG9cvJ_QKd7pWjGI0qi_fCb1ROD4/pubhtml?gid=1640032608&single=true |website=Royal Society |access-date=31 August 2020}}
Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize (1979)
Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1985){{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/45777.html|title=National Academy of Sciences Member Directory: David Phillips of Ellesmere}}
Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1987){{cite web|url=https://wolffund.org.il/2018/12/09/sir-david-c-phillips/|title=Wolf Foundation: Sir David C. Phillips|date=9 December 2018|access-date=31 August 2020|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804230158/https://wolffund.org.il/2018/12/09/sir-david-c-phillips/|url-status=dead}}
Gregori Aminoff Prize (1991){{cite web |title=Gregori Aminoff Prize - Crystallography - Royal Swedish Academy of Scien |url=https://kva.se/en/priser/pristagare/david-phillips-2 |website=The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |access-date=31 August 2020 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527044254/https://www.kva.se/en/priser/pristagare/david-phillips-2 |url-status=dead }}
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1991){{cite web |title=Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |url=https://www.rse.org.uk/fellow/david-chilton-phillips-of-ellesmere/ |website=Royal Society of Edinburgh |access-date=31 August 2020}}
President's Medal (1994){{cite web |title=President's Medal Winners, Royal Academy of Engineering |url=https://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-prizes/prizes/prizes-and-medals/individual-medals/president-s-medal/current-and-recent-awards |website=Royal Academy of Engineering |access-date=31 August 2020}}

}}

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}}

David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KBE|FRS}} (7 March 1924 – 23 February 1999){{Cite journal |last1 = Johnson|first1 = L. N.|author-link = Louise Johnson|doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1999.0092|title = David Chilton Phillips, Lord Phillips of Ellesmere, K.B.E. 7 March 1924 -- 23 February 1999: Elected F.R.S. 1967|journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume = 46|pages = 377–401|year = 2000| s2cid=71220939 |doi-access = }} was a pioneering, British structural biologist and an influential figure in science and government.

Education and early life

David was the son of Charles Harry Phillips, a master tailor and Methodist preacher, and his wife, Edith Harriet Finney, a midwife.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=23 December 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}} His mother's father was Samuel Finney, a coal miner, union official and Member of Parliament.

He was born in Ellesmere, Shropshire which gave rise to his title Baron Phillips of Ellesmere. He was educated at Oswestry High School for Boys and then at the University College of South Wales and Monmouth where he studied physics, electrical engineering, and mathematics. His degree was interrupted between 1944 and 1947 for service in the Royal Navy as a radar officer on HMS Illustrious. He returned to Cardiff to complete his degree (BSc in 1948) and then undertook postgraduate studies with Arthur Wilson. He was awarded his PhD in 1951.{{fact|date=January 2023}}

Career and research

After a postdoctoral period at the National Research Council in Ottawa (1951–55) he joined the Royal Institution.{{cite web |url=http://www.rigb.org/our-history/people/p/baron-phillips |title=David Chilton, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere (1924-1999) |website=The Royal Institution |access-date=3 June 2017 |archive-date=17 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117181857/http://www.rigb.org/our-history/people/p/baron-phillips |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.rigb.org/our-history/iconic-objects/iconic-objects-list/lysozyme |title=Model of lysozyme |website=The Royal Institution |access-date=3 June 2017 |archive-date=17 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117182658/http://www.rigb.org/our-history/iconic-objects/iconic-objects-list/lysozyme |url-status=dead }} In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford where he remained until his retirement in 1990. During that time he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) serving as Biological Secretary from 1976 to 1983.

Phillips lead the team which determined in atomic detail the structure of the enzyme lysozyme, which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of the Royal Institution in London in 1965. Lysozyme, which was discovered in 1922 by Alexander Fleming,{{Cite journal | last1 = Fleming | first1 = A. | author-link = Alexander Fleming| title = On a Remarkable Bacteriolytic Element Found in Tissues and Secretions | doi = 10.1098/rspb.1922.0023 | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume = 93 | issue = 653 | pages = 306–317 | year = 1922 | bibcode = 1922RSPSB..93..306F | doi-access = free }} is found in tear drops, nasal mucus, gastric secretions and egg white. Lysozyme exhibits some antibacterial activity so that the discovery of its structure and mode of action were key scientific objectives. David Phillips solved the structure of lysozyme and also explained the mechanism of its action in destroying certain bacteria by a brilliant application of the technique of X-ray crystallography, a technique to which he had been introduced as a PhD student at the University in Cardiff, and to which he later made major instrumental contributions.

=Honours and awards=

Phillips was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1979 Birthday Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=48072 |date=18 January 1980 |page=900}} invested as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1989 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=51578 |date=31 December 1988 |page=7 |supp=y}} and created a Life Peer as Baron Phillips of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire on 14 July 1994.{{London Gazette |issue=53739 |date=20 July 1994 |page=10337}} In the House of Lords, he chaired the select committee on Science and Technology and he is credited with getting Parliament onto the World Wide Web. In 1994, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the University of Bath.{{cite web |url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/ |title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to present |website=University of Bath |access-date=18 February 2012 |archive-date=19 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219000643/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/ |url-status=dead }}

In 1980 he was invited to deliver a series of Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1980/the-chicken-the-egg-and-the-molecules|title=The chicken, the egg and the molecules|website=The Royal Institution|date=December 1980 }}

Personal life

In 1960 Phillips married Diana Hutchinson.{{fact|date=January 2023}} Phillips died of prostate cancer, on 23 February 1999.{{Cite web |title=David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire {{!}} RCP Museum |url=https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/david-chilton-phillips-baron-phillips-ellesmere-county-shropshire |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=history.rcplondon.ac.uk}} He was diagnosed in 1988.{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=L. N. |date=2000 |title=David Chilton Phillips, Lord Phillips of Ellesmere, K. B. E. 7 March 1924-23 February 1999 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/770407 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=46 |pages=379–401 |issn=0080-4606}}