William Herdman Elliott 1925–2012

Bill Elliott graduated in Biochemistry at Cambridge and gained his PhD with enzymologist Malcolm Dixon in the Biochemical Laboratories. Following research appointments at Harvard, Oxford and the Australian National University, he became Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide in 1965. 

He was an outstanding scholar and stimulating teacher who profoundly influenced the lives of students and staff of his Adelaide department. Early in his career he made important contributions to the understanding of enzyme reactions driven by phosphoryl group transfer from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and discovered the glutamine synthetase enzymes in plant and animal tissues that utilise that mechanism. 

He later worked on mechanisms of enzyme secretion by certain microorganisms, before turning to the biochemical mechanisms of porphyrin synthesis that lead to the formation of haem and thence haemoglobin, research that he pursued for the rest of his academic life.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 24(1), 2013. It was written by George E. Rogers, Biochemistry Discipline, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, University of Adelaide.