Sidney Walter Fox was a Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-born biochemist

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 responsible for unique discoveries in the autosynthesis of protocells.

Professor

In 1943 Fox was granted his first academic position at Iowa State College.

In 1955 Fox assumed the directorship of the Oceanographic Institute at Florida State University

Florida State University

The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...

. Shortly thereafter he published–with Joseph Foster—his first textbook.

Beginning in 1964, Fox served as director of the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution (IMCE) at the University of Miami

University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

. During this time, his laboratory was involved in studying some of the first moon rock

Moon rock

Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Earth's moon. The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon.The rocks collected from the Moon are measured by radiometric dating techniques...

s brought back by the Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...

 missions.

After more than three decades in Florida, Fox moved to Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...

 in 1989, and then on to the University of South Alabama

University of South Alabama

The University of South Alabama is a public, doctoral-level university in Mobile, Alabama, USA. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama. No other areas of the state were willing to support such a...

 in 1993.

Family

In 1937, Fox married Raia Joffe; they remained together until his death. They have three sons: Lawrence, Ronald, and Thomas.

Publications

• Sidney W. Fox y Joseph F. Foster. Introduction to Protein Chemistry. Wiley, 1957.
• Fox, S.W., 1965. Simulated natural experiments in spontaneous organization of morphological units from protenoid. In The Origins of Prebiological Systems and Their Molecular Matrices, S.W. Fox (ed), New York: Academic Press, pp. 361-382.
• Fox, S.W., 1980. The origins of behavior in macromolecules and protocells. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 67B: 423-436
• The Emergence of Life: Darwinian Evolution from the Inside, Basic Books, 1988 ISBN 978-0465019250

External links

• USA scientist credited with discovering life's origins (NOTE: the final link is broken)
• My Scientific Discussions of Evolution for the Pope and His Scientists The Harbinger symposium, "Religion & Science", 1997