Bernhard Witkop

Even long after most lights at NIH darkened, Dr. Witkop might still be found working in his lab. Thomas Witkop remembers going to visit his father at his West Virginia cabin one evening, and finding all signs that his father was present, except his father. “At approximately 4 a.m., he came rolling back up to the cabin. Apparently, he was at the cabin, had some big idea and drove to the lab at NIH in the middle of the night, did whatever he needed to do, and then came back.” Dr. Witkop served as head of the NIDDK Laboratory of Chemistry for 30 years. He was appointed an NIH Institute Scholar in 1987 and a Scholar Emeritus in 1993.

Other honors, among many, included election to the National Academy of Sciences (1969) and the American Philosophical Society (1999) as well as the Paul Karrer Gold Medal from the University of Zurich (1971).

Dr. Witkop also helped pioneer the NIH Visiting Fellow Program. Among other foreign scientists, he began attracting visiting researchers to the program from Japan as early as 1955. He traveled frequently to Japan, where he gave talks in classical Japanese. In 1975, Witkop received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, bestowed by the Emperor of Japan.

After a few years at Harvard University, Dr. Witkop came to NIH as a fellow in the United States Public Health Service in 1950. Thomas Witkop said his father’s NIH service was a high point of his life. In addition to his son, Dr. Witkop is survived by his wife of 65 years, Marlene Prinz Witkop; daughters Cornelia Hess and Phyllis Kasper; a sister; and seven grandchildren.

Bernhard Witkop (May 9, 1917 in Freiburg, Baden – November 22, 2010 in Chevy Chase, Maryland) was a German-born American organic chemist who worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 37 years.