BERNAL, JOHN DESMOND

BERNAL, JOHN DESMOND (1901–1971), physicist. Bernal was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, now in the Irish Republic, and graduated in science from Cambridge University (1923). After research at the Royal Institution, London (1923–27), he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in structural crystallography before his appointment as professor of physics at Birkbeck College, London (1937). His main research achievements concerned the crystallographic study of proteins, an essential step in the emergence of molecular biology. His pupils included rosalind franklin , aaron klug , and max perutz . Known as the "Great Sage of Cambridge," he was a polymath to the detriment of his personal achievements. His interests included the origins of life on Earth and the creation of the Mulberry harbors indispensable for the 1944 D-Day landings. He was deeply interested in the social concerns of science and he lectured and wrote prolifically in this field and on popular science and the history of science. His honors included election to the Royal Society of London, the Lenin Prize of the U.S.S.R., and the U.S. Medal of Freedom. The precocious child of Sephardi Jews on his father's side and an American mother, he became a Marxist and, with the rise of fascism in the 1930s, briefly a member of the Communist Party. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)