Who was Max Perutz? There are plenty of good answers. He was an X-ray crystallographer, someone who uses X-rays as a tool to discover the three-dimensional structure of molecules. He was an accomplished skier and climber, with a sideline research interest in glaciology. He was a scientific manager, who founded and presided over Cambridge's spectacularly successful Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He was a science communicator, who contributed to the pages of the LRB. He was a Nobel laureate, and a recipient of the Order of Merit, among other accolades. All these things were enough for many to call him famous. Perutz, who died in 2002, was convinced enough of his own standing to ask Georgina Ferry to write his biography. But he also realised that few people knew what he was famous for.

LRB 15 November 2007 | PDF Download