doctoral_advisor work_institution birth_place image_size field birth_date article_title alma_mater
heinrich wieland harvard university freiburg , baden , germany 150px organic chemistry 9 may 1917 bernhard witkop
 ludwig maximilians university
bernhard witkop

bernhard witkop -lrb- may 9 , 1917 in freiburg , baden -- november 22 , 2010 in chevy chase , maryland -rrb- is a german-born american organic chemist who worked for the national institutes of health -lrb- nih -rrb- for 37 years .
during those years , dr. witkop -- along with his recruit , the late dr. john daly , and others -- discovered the nih shift , a term describing the movement of hydrogen , deuterium or tritium to adjacent carbons on aromatic rings during oxidation , a process key in developing many therapies .
he also helped to develop selective methods for the non-enzymatic cleavage of proteins , which enabled the sequencing of amino acids in proteins as large as immunoglobulin , a method later used in the production of human insulin .
dr. witkop also helped pioneer the nih visiting fellow program .
among other foreign scientists , he began attracting visiting researchers to the program from japan as early as 1955 .
he traveled frequently to japan , where he gave talks in classical japanese .
in 1975 , witkop received the order of the sacred treasure , bestowed by the emperor of japan .
`` he brought in the first visiting fellow from japan at a time when we were still in the shadow of world war ii , '' said dr. kenneth jacobson , chief of the niddk laboratory of bioorganic chemistry .
`` he broke the ice . ''
other honors , among many , included election to the national academy of sciences -lrb- 1969 -rrb- and the american philosophical society -lrb- 1999 -rrb- as well as the paul karrer gold medal from the university of zurich -lrb- 1971 -rrb- .
even long after most lights at nih darkened , dr. witkop might still be found working in his lab .
thomas witkop remembers going to visit his father at his west virginia cabin one evening , and finding all signs that his father was present , except his father .
`` at approximately 4 a.m. , he came rolling back up to the cabin .
apparently , he was at the cabin , had some big idea and drove to the lab at nih in the middle of the night , did whatever he needed to do , and then came back . ''
dr. witkop served as head of the niddk laboratory of chemistry for 30 years .
he was appointed an nih institute scholar in 1987 and a scholar emeritus in 1993 .
dr. witkop 's early career coincided with world war ii .
a german native and jewish on his mother 's side , he gave much of the credit for his shelter from the nazis to his mentor at the university of munich , the nobel prize-winner heinrich wieland .
after a few years at harvard university , dr. witkop came to nih as a fellow in the united states public health service in 1950 .
thomas witkop said his father 's nih service was a high point of his life .
in addition to his son , dr. witkop is survived by his wife of 65 years , marlene prinz witkop ; daughters cornelia hess and phyllis kasper ; a sister ; and seven grandchildren .
