Albert L. Lehninger
Johns Hopkins University
February 17, 1917 - March 4, 1986
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Scientific Discipline: Biochemistry Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1956)
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Biochemist Albert Lehninger studied cellular metabolism on the molecular level. He identified the mitochondria and recognized it as the organelle where the degradation of fatty acids, the transportation of calcium, and the synthesis of the energy molecule, ATP, takes place. He wrote several highly regarded textbooks on various aspects of biochemistry and cellular structure and behavior.
Lehninger attended Wesleyan University from 1935 to 1939 and went on to earn his PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 1942. During World War II he conducted medical research on the proteins in blood plasma as part of the Plasma Fractionation Program. After the war he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, where he conducted his research. For 25 years he led the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. In 1958 he received the first graduate teaching grant from the National Institutes of Health.
