# David Chilton Phillips

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{{Short description|British structural biologist (1924–1999)}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{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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| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=yes|1924|3|7}}
| birth_place       = [Ellesmere, Shropshire](/source/Ellesmere%2C_Shropshire), England
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1999|2|23|1924|3|7}}
| death_place       = [Royal Marsden Hospital](/source/Royal_Marsden_Hospital), London, England
| resting_place     = 
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| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
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| fields            = 
| workplaces        = {{Plainlist|
* [University of Cardiff](/source/University_of_Cardiff) (1942–44, 1947–51)
* [National Research Council (Canada)](/source/National_Research_Council_(Canada)) (1951–55)
* [Royal Institution](/source/Royal_Institution) (1956–66)
* [University of Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford)}} (1966–90)
| alma_mater        = 
| thesis_title      = 
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| thesis_year       = 
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
* [Louise Johnson](/source/Louise_Johnson)
* [Gregory A. Petsko](/source/Gregory_A._Petsko)
* [E. Yvonne Jones](/source/E._Yvonne_Jones)<ref name=jonesdphil>{{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 }}</ref>
* [Michael Sternberg](/source/Michael_Sternberg)<ref name="sternbergphd">{{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 }}</ref>
* [Ian Wilson](/source/Ian_Wilson_(biologist))
}}
| notable_students  = [Janet Thornton](/source/Janet_Thornton) (postdoc)<ref>{{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
}}</ref><ref>{{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
}}</ref>
| known_for         = Determination of the structure and catalytic mechanism of [lysozyme](/source/lysozyme). Contributions to the techniques of [X-ray crystallography](/source/X-ray_crystallography). Public service in science and government.
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = {{Plainlist|
* [Feldberg Prize](/source/Feldberg_Foundation) (1968)<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* [CIBA Medal](/source/Portland_Press_Excellence_in_Science_Award) (1970)<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [Sir Hans Krebs Medal](/source/Sir_Hans_Krebs_Medal) (1971)
* [Royal Medal](/source/Royal_Medal) (1975)<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize](/source/Grand_Prix_Charles-Leopold_Mayer) (1979)
* [Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences](/source/Member_of_the_National_Academy_of_Sciences) (1985)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/45777.html|title=National Academy of Sciences Member Directory: David Phillips of Ellesmere}}</ref>
* [Wolf Prize in Chemistry](/source/Wolf_Prize) (1987)<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [Gregori Aminoff Prize](/source/Gregori_Aminoff_Prize) (1991)<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* [Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh](/source/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh) (1991)<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [President's Medal](/source/President's_Medal_(Royal_Academy_of_Engineering)) (1994)<ref name="RAEng">{{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}}</ref>
}}
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}}

'''David Chilton Phillips, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KBE|FRS}} (7 March 1924 – 23 February 1999)<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal |last1 = Johnson|first1 = L. N.|author-link = Louise Johnson|doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1999.0092|doi-access = free|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](/source/Biographical_Memoirs_of_Fellows_of_the_Royal_Society)|volume = 46|pages = 377–401|year = 2000| s2cid=71220939 }}</ref> was a British [structural biologist](/source/structural_biology) and a [Fellow of the Royal Society](/source/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society).

==Education and early life==
David was the son of Charles Harry Phillips, a tailor and Methodist preacher, and his wife, Edith Harriet Finney, a midwife.<ref>{{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}}</ref> His mother's father was [Samuel Finney](/source/Samuel_Finney_(politician)), a coal miner, union official and Member of Parliament.<ref name="frs" />

He was born in [Ellesmere, Shropshire](/source/Ellesmere%2C_Shropshire) which gave rise to his title Baron Phillips of Ellesmere.  He was educated at [Oswestry](/source/Oswestry) High School for Boys and then at the [University College of South Wales and Monmouth](/source/Cardiff_University) where he studied [physics](/source/physics), [electrical engineering](/source/electrical_engineering), and [mathematics](/source/mathematics).  His degree was interrupted between 1944 and 1947 for service in the [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy) as a radar officer on ''HMS Illustrious''.  He returned to [Cardiff](/source/Cardiff) to complete his degree (BSc in 1948) and then undertook postgraduate studies with [Arthur Wilson](/source/Arthur_Wilson_(crystallographer)).  He was awarded his [PhD](/source/PhD) in 1951.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

==Career and research==
After a [postdoctoral](/source/postdoctoral) period at the National Research Council in Ottawa (1951–55) he joined the Royal Institution.<ref>{{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](/source/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 }}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> In 1966 he was appointed [Professor](/source/Professor) of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Zoology at the [University of Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford) where he remained until his retirement in 1990. During that time he was elected a [Fellow of the Royal Society](/source/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](/source/enzyme) [lysozyme](/source/lysozyme), which he did in the Davy Faraday Research Laboratories of the [Royal Institution](/source/Royal_Institution) in London in 1965.  Lysozyme, which was discovered in 1922 by [Alexander Fleming](/source/Alexander_Fleming),<ref name="Fleming_1922">{{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 }}</ref> 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 considered primary scientific objectives. David Phillips solved the structure of lysozyme and also explained the mechanism of its action in destroying certain bacteria by a complex application of the technique of [X-ray crystallography](/source/X-ray_crystallography), a technique to which he had been introduced as a PhD student at the University in Cardiff.

===Honours and awards===

Phillips was made a [Knight Bachelor](/source/Knight_Bachelor) in the [1979 Birthday Honours](/source/1979_Birthday_Honours),<ref name="kb">{{London Gazette |issue=48072 |date=18 January 1980 |page=900}}</ref> invested as [Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire](/source/Knight_Commander_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire) (KBE) in the [1989 New Year Honours](/source/1989_New_Year_Honours),<ref name="kbe">{{London Gazette |issue=51578 |date=31 December 1988 |page=7 |supp=y}}</ref> and created a [Life Peer](/source/Life_Peer) as '''Baron Phillips of Ellesmere''', of [Ellesmere](/source/Ellesmere%2C_Shropshire) in the [County of Shropshire](/source/County_of_Shropshire) on 14 July 1994.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=53739 |date=20 July 1994 |page=10337}}</ref> In the [House of Lords](/source/House_of_Lords), he chaired the select committee on Science and Technology and he is credited with getting Parliament onto the [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web). In 1994, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the [University of Bath](/source/University_of_Bath).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/ |title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to present |website=[University of Bath](/source/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 }}</ref>

In 1980 he was invited to deliver a series of [Royal Institution Christmas Lecture](/source/Royal_Institution_Christmas_Lectures) on ''The Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules.''<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1960 Phillips married Diana Hutchinson.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} Phillips died of [prostate cancer](/source/prostate_cancer), on 23 February 1999.<ref>{{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}}</ref> He was diagnosed in 1988.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{Succession box
| before = [Max Ferdinand Perutz](/source/Max_Ferdinand_Perutz)
| title  = [Fullerian Professor of Physiology](/source/Fullerian_Professor_of_Physiology)
| years  = 1979–1985
| after  = [John Bertrand Gurdon](/source/John_Bertrand_Gurdon)}}
{{S-end}}

{{Wolf Prize in Chemistry}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, David}}
Category:1924 births
Category:1999 deaths
Category:20th-century British biologists
Category:Structural biologists
Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in England
Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Category:Fullerian Professors of Physiology
Category:History of X-rays
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Crossbench life peers
Category:Scientists from Shropshire
Category:People from Ellesmere, Shropshire
Category:Royal Medal winners
Category:Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates
Category:Knights Bachelor
Category:Presidents of the British Crystallographic Association
Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II
Category:British fellows of the Royal Society

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [David Chilton Phillips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chilton_Phillips) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chilton_Phillips?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.