About Norman Pirie
Norman Wingate Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 – 29 March 1997), was a British biochemist and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tomato bushy stunt virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA. == Early and personal life == Pirie was born in Easebourne, near Midhurst in West Sussex, the youngest of three children of Sir George Pirie, a Scottish painter, and his wife while they were on a visit to England. He was raised near Torrance, East Dunbartonshire. He developed a stammer, and was educated by private tutors and then spent periods at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, Harriston School near Dumfries, and Hastings Grammar School, and then from 1921 to 1925 at Rydal School in Colwyn Bay. He studied natural sciences (biochemistry) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1929, and became a demonstrator after graduating. He married fellow biochemist Antoinette Patey in 1931. They had a son and a daughter. Like his wife, he was an atheist, and was concerned about nuclear weapons. He served as chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) scientific committee for several years. His wife died in 1991.
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