Hermann Lehmann

Hermann Lehmann (8 July 1910 – 13 July 1985) was a German-born British physician and biochemist known for his works on the chemistry and diversity of hemoglobin. Describing about 75 different hemoglobin, he discovered the most number of hemoglobin types than anyone else. He is regarded as one of the founders of molecular anthropology. His father Paul Lehmann was publisher of two local newspaper. His mother Bella (née Apelt) died when he was three years old. He had three sisters and one half-brother. Hopkins invited him to move to Cambridge, and it was anecdotally said: "Gowland Hopkins told him to leave his white coat hanging behind the door of the laboratory where it would be ready for him on his return!" The same year he attended a conference at Moscow, upon the return of which he was accused of attending the Trades Union Conference. He received the degree two years later and immediately worked under the Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical Research until 1942. His next major work was the case of pseudocholinesterase deficiency, a deadly blood disease in which individuals have severe sensitivity to certain anesthetic drugs. While working at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he discovered that pseudocholinesterase deficiency is the cause of idiosyncratic hypersensitivity to suxamethonium. He developed biochemical test for the diagnosis, and also discovered the genetic basis of the disease.

Lehmanns most important works were on the variants of haemoglobins. He discovered about 75 different types of haemoglobins during his career. He was credited as "more than anybody responsible for cataloguing the enormous wealth of variations in the hemoglobin mutants and setting our base of understanding of the population genetics, anthropology, and clinical diversity of the structural variants."

Honours and awards Lehmann received the Darwin's Prize for his Ph.D. thesis at Christ's College in 1938. He is regarded as one of the founders of molecular anthropology. and the National Order of the Ivory Coast in 1981.