Children two Fields Biochemistry | Died January 28, 2010 Name Patricia Clarke | |
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Born Patricia Hannah Green
29 July 1919
Pontypridd ( 1919-07-29 ) Institutions University College London Notable awards FRS (1976)
Leeuwenhoek Lecture (1979) Spouse Michael Clarke (m. 1940) | ||
Alma mater University of Cambridge Institution University College London | ||
Patricia Hannah Clarke FRS (née Green) (29 July 1919 – 28 January 2010) was a British biochemist.
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Education and early life
Clarke was born in Pontypridd, South Wales, and was educated at Howell's School, Llandaff, from 1930 to 1937, before studying the Natural Sciences Tripos at Girton College, Cambridge, from 1937 to 1940.
Career
After graduating she took a post at the Armament Research Department of the Ministry of Supply in Swansea to work on explosives. She returned to biochemistry in 1944 when she joined the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories at Beckenham, Kent. In 1951, she moved to work part-time at the National Collection of Type Cultures of bacteria in the Central Public Health Laboratory at Colindale, London.
Her final move was to the Department of Biochemistry at University College London, as Assistant Lecturer, being appointed Lecturer in 1956, Reader in 1966 and Professor of Microbial Biochemistry in 1973 until her retirement in 1984 – when she was made emeritus professor. During this time she co-wrote the 'Genetics and Biochemistry of Pseudomonas'. Her aim in this paper was to present in one volume the fundamentals, basic methodology, and specific applications of gas-liquid chromatography in microbiology and medicine. In addition to this, some of her most well-recognised papers are: Hydrogen Sulphide Production by Bacteria, An Inducible Amidase Produced by a Strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Biochemical Classification of Proteus and Providence Cultures Butyramide-using Mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa 8602 which Produce an Amidase with Altered Substrate Specificity.Her major field of research was bacterial enzymes production and metabolism.
Awards and honours
Clarke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1976 and delivered their Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1979.
Personal life
In 1940, she married Michael Clarke; they had two children in 1947 and 1949. She died at University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff on 28 January 2010, aged 90 years.