Derek Richter

Derek Richter (14 January 1907 – 15 December 1995), English neuroscientist, was one of the founding fathers of the science of brain chemistry. Identifying monoamine oxidase and demonstrating its function in the brain early in his career, he became a prime mover in his field. In 1968 he was involved in the foundation of the British Brain Research Organization (BRA). Before this he helped to establish the Mental Health Research Fund, later renamed The Mental Health Foundation,. He also established the Journal of Neurochemistry (1956), of which he was one of the chief editors from 1956 to 1969. He was involved in the foundation of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) (1960), of which he became secretary-general, and the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) (1967). After leading a research unit at Whitchurch Psychiatric Hospital (1947–1960), he became director of the Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatric Research Unit in Carshalton (1960–1971). Throughout his life he promoted international collaboration in research.

Biography

Richter was born in Bath, Somerset, the third child of Charles A Richter, co-founder of the family firm, Bath Cabinet Makers. From Oundle School he won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a first-class honour's degree in chemistry. At the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, he worked under Nobel Prize-winning Heinrich Wieland. In 1931, he gained a PhD (magna cum laude) for the autoxidation of aldehydes.

He then moved to Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Biochemical Laboratory at Cambridge alongside Nobel laureates Ernst Chain, Richard Synge, Frederick Sanger, Hans Krebs and Archer Martin. This was a defining period, working with Hermann Blaschko on monoamines that have a great physiological interest.

A year before the outbreak of World War II, he took a post at the Maudsley Hospital to work on amphetamines. Married to Beryl Ailsa Griffiths, with whom he had three children, he set up a wartime research laboratory for treating shell-shock in the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital. Despite taxing commitments, he simultaneously qualified in medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Between April 1945 and 1951 he made weekly contributions at a time when AID was strictly anonymous and very controversial. It was a precursor to modern developments in reproductive technology such as IVF, that are leading to changes in the structure of families.

He continued to write and edit enlightened books, gardened passionately and joined his second wife, Molly Bullock, in establishing South Lodge, a refuge in Epsom for discharged mental patients.