| Ted Baker | |
| Birth Name: | Edward Neill Baker |
| Birth Date: | 29 October 1942 |
| Birth Place: | Stanley, Falkland Islands |
| Fields: | Structural biology, protein crystallography |
| Workplaces: | University of Oxford Massey University University of Auckland |
| Alma Mater: | University of Auckland |
| Thesis Title: | Structural studies of some copper(II) coordination compounds |
| Thesis Url: | https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/2594 |
| Thesis Year: | 1967 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Neil Waters, David Hall |
| Doctoral Students: | Tamir Gonen[1] |
| Awards: | Hector Medal (1997) Rutherford Medal (2006) CNZM (2007) |
Edward Neill Baker (born 29 October 1942) is a New Zealand scientist specialising in protein purification and crystallization and bioinformatics. He is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Auckland.[2]
Born at Port Stanley in 1942 to New Zealanders Harold and Moya (née Boak) Baker,[3] he spent his early life in the Falkland Islands,[4] where his father was the superintendent of education.[5] The family returned to New Zealand in 1948.[5] He was educated at King's College, Auckland from 1956 to 1960.[6] After studying chemistry at the University of Auckland, completing his PhD in 1967,[7] he conducted postdoctoral research on the structure of insulin with Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin at the University of Oxford.[8] He then took up an academic post at Massey University,[8] where he determined the structure of the kiwifruit enzyme actinidin.[6] In 1997 he moved back to the University of Auckland where he became professor of structural biology and later direct of the Maurice Wilkins Center for Molecular Diversity.[9] He also served as president of the International Union of Crystallography between 1996 and 1999.[8]
Baker was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1987,[10] and won the society's Hector Medal in 1997.[11] He was awarded the Rutherford Medal, the highest honour in New Zealand science, in 2006.[12] In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science.[13]