Horace Albert "Nook" Barker was an American biochemist and microbiologist who studied the operation of biological and chemical processes in plants, humans and other animals, including using radioactive tracers to determine the role enzymes play in synthesizing sucrose.
11 Facts About Horace Barker
1.
2.
Horace Barker was recognized with the National Medal of Science for his role in identifying an active form of Vitamin B12.
3.
Horace Barker moved with his family to Palo Alto, California when he was 11 years old.
4.
Horace Barker spent a year in Germany following high school, learning the German language and absorbing its culture.
5.
Horace Barker attended Stanford University, graduating in 1929 with a bachelor's degree in physical science, and was awarded a Ph.
6.
Horace Barker then spent a year at the Delft Microbiology Laboratory in the Netherlands under Albert Kluyver.
7.
Horace Barker was hired in 1936 by the University of California, Berkeley to teach soil microbiology.
8.
Horace Barker was part of a team that developed the use of Carbon-14 as a radioactive tracer, using the technique in 1944 to show how sucrose is synthesized in living cells by enzymes.
9.
Horace Barker served as the department's chairman in the 1960s, and continued work there for more than a decade after retiring in 1975 when he became an emeritus professor.
10.
Horace Barker was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1967.
11.
Horace Barker had been married for 62 years to his wife, the former Margaret McDowell, at the time of her death in 1995.