Hopkins, Sir Frederick (1861-1947), an English biochemist, helped discover the importance of vitamins in nutrition. Hopkins found that small amounts of certain substances in foods could greatly assist the body’s growth and development. These substances, which Hopkins called “accessory food factors,” later came to be known as vitamins. For this work, Hopkins shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Dutch scientist Christiaan Eijkman.
Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born in Eastbourne, near Brighton and Hove, England. In 1894, he received a medical degree from the University of London. In 1914, Hopkins became the first professor of biochemistry at Cambridge University. He was knighted in 1925.
