Marcel Florkin (Liège, 15 August 1900 – 3 May 1979) was a Belgian biochemist. Florkin was graduated in 1928 as a Doctor in Medicine and became in 1934 a professor of biochemistry at the University of Liège. He retired as professor emeritus in 1970.
In 1951, he was the initiator of the Belgian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Together with Christian de Duve, and others, he wrote a proposal for the statutes which was adopted in 1952, on the first general meeting. In 1944, he published a book (translated to English in 1949) concerning biochemical evolution, in which he explained the relevance of evolution for understanding differences in metabolism and chemical makeup between different types of organisms. In later years he applied the principles of biosemiotics (indicator biology) on biochemistry. In 1946, Marcel Florkin was awarded the Francqui Prize on Biological and Medical Sciences. He was a member of the Association for the intellectual and artistic progress of Wallonia.
Bibliography
- Florkin, M, Concepts of molecular biosemiotics and of molecular evolution, In: Comprehensive Biochemistry, 29A: 1–124, 1974.
- Florkin, M, A History of Biochemistry, American Elsevier Publishing Co., 1972, xviii + 343 pp.
References
- Schoffeniels, Ernest (2013). "Marcel Florkin and the system of biochemistry". In Gilles, R. (ed.). Animals and Environmental Fitness: Physiological and Biochemical Aspects of Adaptation and Ecology: Invited Lectures. Proceedings of the First Conference of the European Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, held 27 to 31 August 1979 in Liège, Belgium. pp. xiii–xviii.
- Marcel Florkin, Biochemical Evolution, NY: Academic Press, 1949
- King, Lester S. (1973). "review of A History of Biochemistry by Marcel Florkin". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 225 (6): 641. doi:10.1001/jama.1973.03220330053033.
Sources
- Fruton, JS, Marcel Florkin, 1900–1979, historian of biochemistry, Hist Philos Life Sci. 1980;2(1):167-71
External links
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