George Barger

George Barger ( born April 4, 1878 in Manchester, † January 5, 1939 in Aeschi, Switzerland ) was a British biochemist.

Barger had an English mother and a Dutch father ( engineer) and went to school in Utrecht. He studied at University College London and chemistry and botany at King's College, University of Cambridge. He then spent two years Demonstrator in the Department of Botany at the University of Brussels. In 1903 he returned to England and went to the Wellcome laboratories. From 1909 he was Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry at Goldsmith 's College, University of London and from 1913 professor at Royal Holloway College, University of London. From 1919 he was professor at the University of Edinburgh ( on a newly created chair of chemistry related to medicine ), and finally from 1938 until his death Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. In 1928 he was a visiting professor at Cornell University. In 1932 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina.

He examined particularly alkaloids and their biological activity. For example, he identified several alkaloids such as tyramine and histamine later in ergot. He first showed the presence of histamine in animal tissues ( gut). He also made contributions to the synthesis of thyroxine ( by Charles Robert Harington ) and vitamin B1 ( by Alexander Robertus Todd ).

In 1937 he received the Cothenius medal. In 1919 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Davy Medal he received in 1938. In 1904 he became a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.