George Joseph Popják

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George Joseph Popják FRS (György Popják) was a Hungarian-British biochemist, medical researcher, and professor. He was born on May 5, 1914, in Kiskundorozsma, Szeged, Hungary, and died on December 30, 1998, in Westwood, Los Angeles. He studied medicine at Franz Joseph University and earned his medical degree in a special ceremony. After working as an anatomy assistant and training as a pathologist, he left Hungary for London on a British Council scholarship just before World War II. He married Hasel Popják in 1941.

Popják’s career spanned several major research centers. He worked at Hammersmith Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School, then moved to the National Institute for Medical Research in 1947. From 1953 to 1962 he directed the Experimental Radiopathology Research Unit of the Medical Research Council at Hammersmith. He then co-directed the Chemical Enzymology Laboratory at Shell Research (1962–1968) with John W. Cornforth. In 1968 he moved to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a professor of biological chemistry and psychiatry, retiring in 1984 but continuing research in the UCLA Atherosclerosis Research Unit.

Popják published about 230 scientific papers. He helped uncover how lipids and cholesterol are made in the body, using radiolabeled substances to map the steps of cholesterol biosynthesis, working with Konrad Bloch, Feodor Lynen, and especially John W. Cornforth from 1948 to 1968. He also showed that fatty acid synthesis happens in the cytosol, not in mitochondria. After moving to UCLA, he focused on how cholesterol production is regulated. He was survived by his wife, who died in 2004 at age 93.