Fritz Albert Lipmann was an American biochemist who was awarded, jointly with H. A. Krebs, the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contribution to our understanding of how cells convert food into energy. He discovered that coenzyme A acted as a crucial intermediary catalytic substance in carbohydrate oxidation. Coenzyme A is one of the most important substances in cellular metabolism; it aids the conversion of amino acids, steroids, fatty acids, and hemoglobin into energy. Most of his attention during his later years was focused on the development of the biological mechanism of peptide and protein synthesis.

A slow starter and a self-admitted failure at academic politics, Lipmann wandered early in his career from laboratory to laboratory as a researcher. His wife remembers that he "had no position, no prospects, and it did not seem to trouble him." This lack of obsessive focus is, perhaps, related to his famed ability to see the wider picture, a trait which eventually led to pivotal discoveries about how living organisms function.

Sources

• Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Lipmann, Fritz Albert." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 15, 2006; Last revised December 1, 2008; Retrieved May 10, 2009]. 
• Wikipedia Contributors, Fritz Albert Lipmann, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 10 May 2009.
• Bellas, Georgia, et al. “A Nobel Legacy 1914 – 1973.” The Harvard Guide, 2007. Accessed 10 May 2009.