Hans C. Freeman (1929�2008) (original) (raw)

2008, Acta Crystallogr D Biol Cryst

Australia's scientific community lost a leading figure when Hans Freeman, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, his alma mater, died on 9 November 2008. He will be remembered as much for his influence in science policy as for his research and as a great teacher and mentor. Hans was born in Breslau, Germany and migrated to Australia at the age of nine in 1938. He topped his primary school after only one year speaking a new language in a new country, and then went on to complete his secondary education at Sydney Boys High, a school that selected pupils based solely on academic merit. At Sydney High, Hans was taught science by a legendary teacher, Len Basser, who has numbered more than eight professors of science among his former pupils. Hans then attended Sydney University where he graduated with first class Honours and the University Medal in Chemistry and proceeded to an MSc and then to a PhD. He commenced his research studying dipole moments with Professor Raymond LeFevre, but it was the award of a Rotary Foundation Fellowship that permitted Hans to spend a year at the California Institute of Technology that was to permanently change his research career. He was introduced to crystallography by Eddy Hughes and the environment of the laboratory focussed Hans' interest on molecules of biological relevance. A defining moment during his time at Cal. Tech. was the opportunity to attend two select meetings on the structure of proteins held in 1953. The attendees included Bragg, Crick, Kendrew, Pauling, Perutz, Watson and Wilkins among other notable figures of crystallography and structural biology. An article describing one of these meetings was authored by John Kendrew [Kendrew, J. C. (1954), Nature (London), 4393, 57-59].