Description
Papers of Morris Friedkin, American biochemist, professor and university administrator. His research interests included folic
acid metabolism, cancer chemotherapy, enzymology, DNA synthesis, biochemical dynamics of the cell cycle, pharmacology, and
positron emission tomography. Materials include laboratory notebooks, loose notes, data, chemical and research product subject
files; reprints and typescripts of published and unpublished writings by Friedkin; documents related to grants and fellowships;
annotated writings by others; and correspondence. Also included are course materials and notes from Friedkin's time as student
at Iowa State College and at University of Chicago; and teaching materials and administrative materials from his time as a
faculty member and/or administrator at Washington University, Tufts University, and the University of California, San Diego.
Background
Morris E. Friedkin was born on December 30, 1918, in Kansas City, Missouri. Upon finishing high school in 1936, he entered
Kansas City Junior College and received an A.A. in chemistry in 1938. Friedkin continued his education at Iowa State College
receiving a B.S. in chemistry in 1940 and an M.S. in analytical chemistry in 1941. After completing his master's degree, he
enrolled in the doctorate program in biochemistry at the University of Chicago where he was one of the first graduate students
of the renowned biochemist, Albert Lehninger. In 1948, Morris Friedkin completed his Ph.D. with the submission of his dissertation
entitled "Studies on Aerobic Phosophorylation." After receiving his doctorate, he continued his studies for one year as a
postdoctoral fellow of the National Institutes of Health at the University of Copenhagen.