Charles E. Clifton

Charles Egolf Clifton (March 23, 1904 – October 7, 1976) was an American microbiologist. He was a faculty member at Stanford University for forty years, authored two textbooks, and was the editor of the peer-reviewed journal the Annual Review of Microbiology for twenty-five years.

Early life and education Charles Egolf Clifton was born on March 23, 1904, in Etna, Licking County, Ohio to parents Lulu and Allen Benton Clifton. He had one sister, Margaret Kuhn. He graduated from the Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 1925 and a master's degree in physical chemistry in 1926.

Clifton attended the University of Minnesota for his PhD, graduating in 1928. He said that he received the first PhD in biophysics awarded in the US. In 1936 and 1937, he took a sabbatical leave from Stanford to do research at Cambridge University with Marjory Stephenson and in Delft, Netherlands with Albert Kluyver.

He was the first editor of the peer-reviewed journal the Annual Review of Microbiology, which was first published in 1947. He remained editor through 1972 and was succeeded by Mortimer P. Starr.

Personal life and death Charles Clifton married Esther Ora of Bruce, South Dakota, on September 7, 1932.