Professor William Herdman Elliott - Chair of Biochemistry, c1982

B: 5 June 1925; D: 25 July 2012

Bill Elliott was Professor of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide from 1965-1988 and earlier a Fellow and Professor of Biochemistry (personal chair) at the Australian National University 1957-1965.

In his research he discovered glutamine synthetase, the enzyme system which synthesises taurocholic acid, and the synthesis of nicotinuric acid by liver mitochondria.

With Bob Symons he established BRESA, a University of Adelaide biotechnology company and the first in Australia to market radioactive nucleotides for molecular biology research.

Elliott was an active Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, serving on Council from 1969 to 1972, and being a member (later Chairman) of the Molecular and Biological Sectional Committees between 1966 and 1993.

He collaborated with his wife, Daphne Elliott, on several books including Biochemistry and molecular biology (1997, 5th edition 2014), with translations into Russian and Japanese. Their final collaboration, How life works: the inside word from a biochemist (2015), was completed by Daphne after William's death.

Taken from Encyclopedia of Australian Science - https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000387b.htm - Accessed 8 March 2021.

Undated.