| Alfred Alan Eddy | |
| Birth Date: | 1926 11, df=y |
| Birth Place: | St Just in Penwith, Cornwall, England |
| Death Place: | Disley, Cheshire, England |
| Fields: | Biology of yeast, trans-membrane transport |
| Workplaces: | Brewing Industry Research Foundation UMIST University of Manchester |
| Alma Mater: | Exeter College, Oxford |
| Thesis Title: | The Physical chemistry of bacterial growth : the role of alkali metal ions in bacterial metabolism |
| Thesis Url: | http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph020297439 |
| Thesis Year: | 1951 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Cyril Norman Hinshelwood |
| Doctoral Students: | John Skehel |
| Spouse: | Susan Ruth Slade-Jones |
Professor Alfred Alan Eddy (4 November 1926 – 24 October 2017), usually known as Alan Eddy, was a biochemist who was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) between 1959 and 1994.[1]
Eddy was born on 4 November 1926 in St Just, Cornwall, the son of Alfred and Ellen Eddy.[1] After completing his secondary education at Devonport High School for Boys, he attended Exeter College, Oxford, graduating with a 1st Class Honours degree in 1949.[1] He was awarded his DPhil in 1951, supervised by Cyril Hinshelwood.[2] [3] [1]
In 1953, Eddy joined the Brewing Industry Research Foundation in Nutfield.[1] Using snail gastric extracts Eddy, in 1957, was able to prepare protoplasts/sphaeroplasts of the yeast S. pastorianus; the ability to produce cell wall-free yeasts was important in facilitating much of later yeast research.[4] In 1959, he was appointed to the first chair of Biochemistry at UMIST; he oversaw the creation of the Department of Biochemistry from the previously existing Brewing Chemistry department.[5] He held this position until his retirement in 1994.[1] He was Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester until his death in 2017.[6]
Eddy's research interests were diverse, but his major contributions were in the biology of trans-membrane transport, in particular the functioning of proton pumps and symport systems.[7]
Eddy lived in Disley, Cheshire with his wife Susan Ruth (née Slade-Jones), whom he married in 1954. They had two sons.[1]
He died on 24 October 2017 at the age of 90.[8]