page_title: Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Rudolph Peters Building, designed by Paul Waterhouse, was one of the buildings of the Department of Biochemistry of Oxford University until it was demolished in 2006
context_page_description: The Department of Biochemistry of Oxford University is located in the Science Area in Oxford, England. It is one of the largest biochemistry departments in Europe. The Biochemistry Department is part of the University of Oxford's Medical Sciences Division, the largest of the University's four academic divisions, which has been ranked first in the world for biomedicine.
context_section_description: The Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University began as the physiological chemistry section of the Physiology Department, and acquired its own separate department and building in the 1920s.  In 1920, Benjamin Moore was elected to the position of the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry, the newly established Chair of Biochemistry at Oxford University.  He was followed by Rudolph Peters in 1923, and an endowment of £75,000 was soon granted by the Rockefeller Foundation for the construction of a new departmental building, purchase of its equipment, and its maintenance.  The Biochemistry Department building opened in 1927.
  In 1954, Hans Krebs was appointed the Whitley Chair of Biochemistry, and his appointment brought greater prominence to the department. He brought with him the Medical Research Council unit established to conduct research on cell metabolism.  In 1955, a second professorship in the department, the Iveagh Chair of Microbiology, was established with funding from Guinness and the sub-department of Microbiology created, with Donald Woods its first holder. The eight-storey Hans Krebs Building was constructed in 1964 with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation.  Krebs was succeeded by Rodney Porter in 1967. Genetics was brought into the Biochemistry Department when Walter Bodmer was appointed the first Professor of Genetics in 1970. The Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, first established in the Zoology Department with support from Krebs and also linked to the Physical Chemistry Laboratory of the Chemistry Department, became part of the Biochemistry Department. It moved into the Rex Richards building built in 1984, with David Phillips the Professor in Molecular Biophysics. The Oxford Glycobiology Institute, headed by Raymond Dwek and housed in the Rodney Porter Building, opened in 1991.
  The department is now part of the Medical Sciences Division of Oxford University, under the Divisional Boards formed in 2000.  In 2006, two older biochemistry buildings were demolished, and another two including the Han Krebs Tower in 2014, to make way for the  two-phase construction of the New Biochemistry Building. Francis Barr, the EP Abraham Professor of Mechanistic Cell Biology, is the head of the Biochemistry Department, replacing Mark Sansom, the David Phillips Professor in Molecular Biophysics, in January 2019.
caption: The old biochemistry Rudolf Peters Building, demolished in 2006
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