Norman Pirie

Norman Wingate Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 - 29 March 1997)-was a British biochemist and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tobacco mosaic virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.

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He taught at his alma mater, Cambridge University, from 1932 to 1940. He later joined the Rothamsted Experimental Station, becoming head of the biochemistry department in 1947.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, delivered its Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1963 and won its Copley Medal in 1971.