Max Perutz, one of the great figures in molecular biology, died of cancer on 6 February 2002 at the age of 87. The importance of his work in the development of molecular biology can never be over-estimated and his discoveries still remain the foundation of current research.

Perutz pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to study the structure of proteins, and he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962 with John Kendrew for his work on identifying the structure of haemoglobin. He was Chairman of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, which has been home to nine Nobel prize winners since the 1950s, perhaps the most famous being James Watson and Francis Crick.

“Not only have his colleagues lost a great co-worker and friend, but Britain and the world will be mourning the loss of one of the 20th Century's scientific giants”, said Professor Sir George Radda, Chief Executive of the UK's Medical Research Council (BBC News Online, 7 February 2002). “He has inspired countless young scientists. He will be sorely missed, but his life and work will continue to shape science”, Radda added. (The New York Times, 7 February 2002).

Although he officially retired in 1979, Perutz's appetite for research never waned. He still worked almost every day in the lab, and submitted his last scientific paper for publication just before Christmas 2001. This work, on the structure of the glutamine repeats in Huntington's disease, is now in press in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.