Chester Hamlin Werkman

Chester Hamlin Werkman (born June 17, 1893 in Fort Wayne , † September 10, 1962 in Ames , Iowa ) was an American microbiologist .

Life

His parents, a barber and a teacher, had English, German and Dutch roots. Chester had a sister named Iona. He and his wife Cecile had a son named Robert.

After finishing school in Fort Wayne, he worked briefly for a railroad company. Then he went to Purdue University to majoring in chemistry. He completed his studies in 1919. For a few months he then carried out routine examinations for the Food and Drug Administration in the Agriculture Department. Then he went to the University of Idaho . In 1920 he decided to go to the Iowa State University in the bacteriology department, where he got his doctorate in 1923. In 1924/25 he was at the University of Massachusetts , but then returned to Iowa State University, where he stayed for life. He was officially a professor there from 1933.

plant

Influenced by Albert Jan Kluyver , Werkman directed the microbiological research branch, which until then had used a method derived from botany and zoology, to biochemical methods.

In his laboratories he worked over time with numerous researchers, including Lester O. Krampitz and Merton F. Utter . The work with Harland G. Wood in 1936 led to an outstanding result when the discovery was made that CO ₂ can also be used by heterotrophic organisms through carboxylation . This work was carried out on propionibacteria after Cornelis Bernardus van Niel carried out their classification in Kluyver's laboratory.

Awards

• 1944: Honorary Doctorate from Purdue University
• 1946: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

literature

• Russel W. Brown: "Chester Hamlin Werkman 1893-1962", in: Biographical Memoirs 44, National Academy of Sciences, p. 329, 1974
• Rivers Singleton, Jr .: "From Bacteriology to Biochemistry: Albert Jan Kluyver and Chester Werkam at Iowa State", in: Journal of the History of Biology 33, p. 141, 2000