Hal Dixon

Who was Hal Dixon?

Dr Henry Berkeley Franks Dixon D.Sc., known as Hal Dixon, was a biochemist and Life Fellow of King's College Cambridge. Born in Dublin, the youngest son of Henry Horatio Dixon, he was interested in science from a young age; his discovery of an optical illusion arising from binocular vision was described by his father in Nature Magazine when he was only nine years old.

After education at Shrewsbury School he was awarded a scholarship in 1946 to study Natural Sciences at King's College Cambridge where his elder brother Kendal was a fellow, achieving firsts in Part I and Part II and specialising in biochemistry. He remained at King's for his graduate studies on peptide hormones, supervised by Frank Young, and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1954.

In 1953 he was elected to a Life Fellowship at King's, where he remained for the whole of his academic career, holding the positions of Financial Tutor, Director of Studies in Natural Sciences, Vice Provost and Praelector, as well as co-editor of the College Register. In 1954 he was appointed as University Demonstrator in biochemistry, and in 1959 was promoted to University Lecturer. His research in chemistry and biochemistry led to 136 published papers. From 1964 to 1965, he worked at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow as part of a UK-USSR exchange program. His particular interest in applications of methods from organic chemistry to biochemistry led to a proposed treatment for Wilson's disease.