Charles Robert Harington

Sir Charles Robert Harington (* August 1, 1897; † February 4, 1972 ) was a British organic chemist and biochemist, known for the synthesis of thyroxine.

Harington studied at Cambridge University and then at the University of Edinburgh at George Barger. After a short stay in the USA he was in 1922 at the Medical School of University College London. In 1928 he was Reader and Professor of Chemical Pathology at University College London and 1942 to 1962 he was director of the National Institute for Medical Research as the successor of Henry Hallett Dale.

In addition to the elucidation of the structure of thyroxine, he also synthesized glutathione. He has always had an interest in applications of chemistry in medicine and later dealt among other things with immunochemistry.

In 1931 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Medal in 1944 and received in the same year he gave the Croonian Lecture. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge and the University of Paris. In 1948 he was knighted and in 1953 he was KBE.

He was editor of the Biochemical Journal.