Robert Joseph Paton Williams MBE. 25 February 1926 — 21 March 2015

Robert J. P. Williams was a pioneer in advancing our understanding of the roles of chemical elements, especially the metals, in biology and in biological evolution. During the first half of his career of more than 60 years at Oxford University he studied the thermodynamic stabilities of transition-metal complexes with organic ligands, their redox properties, magnetism and colour, to understand their biological function. In parallel he collaborated with biologists and biophysicists, for example with Bert Vallee, studying zinc in proteins. Williams was the first to describe how proton gradients could be used to drive the formation of the universal biological fuel, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), a fundamental step in biological energetics. From the late 1960s he studied many proteins that use metal ions for catalysis, for electron transfer and cellular regulation. A leading figure in the establishment of the Oxford Enzyme Group, Williams developed high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study the mobility and dynamics of many protein structures, leading to a deeper understanding of protein function. He held the Royal Society Napier Research Professorship from 1974 until his retirement in 1991. Subsequently he published several books setting out his understanding of the roles of metal ions in biology, and their wider significance in evolution. Bob Williams's deep insights across many disciplines made him a charismatic teacher. His lateral style of thinking never failed to inspire. His legacy lies in the successful careers of his many students and collaborators worldwide and the vigour of the new discipline of bioinorganic chemistry that he helped to establish.

[1]  R. J. Williams,et al.  Magnesium-calcium balances and steady states of biological systems. , 1968, Journal of theoretical biology.

[2]  R. J. P. Williams,et al.  383. The oxidation–reduction potentials of some copper complexes , 1961 .

[3]  B. Weber,et al.  An Issue of Originality and Priority: The Correspondence and Theories of Oxidative Phosphorylation of Peter Mitchell and Robert J.P. Williams, 1961–1980 , 2006 .

[4]  R. J. Williams,et al.  The detection of intermediates during the conversion of propane-1,2-diol to propionaldehyde by glyceroldehydrase, a coenzyme B 12 dependent reaction. , 1972, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[5]  Sanat K. Dhar,et al.  Metal Ions in Biological Systems , 1973, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.

[6]  C. Perry,et al.  Biological minerals formed from strontium and barium sulphates. III. The morphology and crystallography of strontium sulphate crystals from the colonial radiolarian, Sphaerozoum punctatum , 1989, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B. Biological Sciences.

[7]  J. M. Pratt,et al.  The 220 MHz and 60 MHz H NMR spectra of 5'-deoxyadenosylcobalamin and cobinamide coenzymes. , 1970, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[8]  R. P. Williams The Properties Of Metalloporphyrins , 1956 .

[9]  W. Penney,et al.  Influence of Crystalline Fields on the Susceptibilities of Salts of Paramagnetic Ions. II. The Iron Group, Especially Ni, Cr and Co , 1932 .

[10]  T. L. Coombs,et al.  Spectrophotometric Evidence for Enzyme Inhibitor Complexation1,2 , 1958 .

[11]  J. M. Pratt,et al.  Methyl transfer from methyl vitamin B 12 . , 1971, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[12]  Robert J.P. Williams,et al.  The Chemistry of Evolution: The Development of our Ecosystem , 2005 .

[13]  M. Perutz Stereochemistry of Cooperative Effects in Haemoglobin: Haem–Haem Interaction and the Problem of Allostery , 1970, Nature.

[14]  F. L. Hoch,et al.  The role of zinc in alcohol dehydrogenases. II. The kinetics of the instantaneous reversible inhibition of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase by 1,10-phenanthroline. , 1958, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[15]  R. J. Williams Gradient elution analysis , 1952 .

[16]  George Davey Smith,et al.  Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine , 2012 .

[17]  R. J. Williams,et al.  The Properties of Metal‐Porphyrin and Similar Complexes , 2007 .

[18]  R. J. Williams Binding of Zinc in Carboxypeptidase , 1960, Nature.

[19]  S. Mann,et al.  Structural and analytical studies of the silicified macrohairs from the lemma of the grass Phalaris canariensis L , 1984, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[20]  G. Kauffman Coordination Chemistry: A Century of Progress , 1994 .

[21]  R J Williams,et al.  Metalloenzymes: the entatic nature of their active sites. , 1968, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[22]  R. J. Williams,et al.  The absorption spectra, magnetic moments and the binding of iron in some haemoproteins. , 1961, The Biochemical journal.

[23]  D. Hall,et al.  The iron complex in spinach ferredoxin. , 1966, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[24]  R. J. Williams,et al.  The chemistry of complexes related to cis-Pt(NH3)2Cl2. An anti-tumour drug , 1972 .

[25]  R. J. Williams,et al.  The natural selection of the chemical elements , 1997, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences CMLS.

[26]  R. J. Williams,et al.  Possible functions of chains of catalysts. , 1962, Journal of theoretical biology.

[27]  R. Silverstein Max Perutz and the Secret of Life , 2007 .

[28]  E. P. Kennedy,et al.  Magnesium and the growth of Escherichia coli. , 1968, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[29]  J. Kuenen General discussion , 2005, Netherlands Journal of Plant Pathology.

[30]  R. J. Williams,et al.  Order of Stability of Metal Complexes , 1948, Nature.

[31]  Robert J.P. Williams,et al.  An introduction to biominerals and the role of organic molecules in their formation , 1984 .

[32]  R. J. Williams,et al.  NMR studies of mobility within protein structure. , 1989, European journal of biochemistry.

[33]  Robert J.P. Williams,et al.  The Biological Chemistry of the Elements: The Inorganic Chemistry of Life , 2001 .

[34]  J. M. Pratt,et al.  The chemistry of vitamin B 12. , 1969, Chemistry in Britain.

[35]  P. Mitchell Coupling of Phosphorylation to Electron and Hydrogen Transfer by a Chemi-Osmotic type of Mechanism , 1961, Nature.