Arthur Harden

Born in Manchester in 1865, Arthur Harden studied at Owens College, now the University of Manchester, and later earned his doctorate at the University of Erlangen. He went on to teach in Manchester before building much of his scientific career at what became the Lister Institute, and he was later appointed professor of biochemistry at the University of London.

Harden is best known for his long investigation of alcoholic fermentation. Working on yeast and the chemical steps involved in turning sugar into alcohol, he helped clarify the role of fermentative enzymes, work that became central to the early growth of biochemistry. In 1929 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Hans von Euler-Chelpin for this research.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1909, helped found the Biochemical Society, and served for many years as an editor of the Biochemical Journal. Later honors included the Davy Medal, and he was knighted in the 1930s. He died in 1940 in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.