Walter Gratzer

Walter Bruno Gratzer (20 September 1932 – 20 October 2021) was a German-born British biophysical chemist and science writer.

Gratzer was born in a Jewish hospital in Breslau (now Wrocław). Gratzer and his parents escaped Nazi persecution by escaping to Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom in 1939. He lived in Belsize Park and then Cheltenham. He won a scholarship to Cheltenham grammar school.

Gratzer received his BA in chemistry in 1954 and his MA in 1958 from the University of Oxford, and his PhD in 1960 from the National Institute for Medical Research. He was a research fellow at Harvard University from 1960 to 1963, a lecturer in biophysics at King's from 1963 to 1966, and worked at the Medical Research Council from 1966 to 1996.

He was professor of biophysical chemistry at King's College London and an author and reviewer of popular science. He was the first Nature news correspondent appointed by editor John Maddox. Oliver Sacks of Nature writes that his reviews have high literary quality and show knowledge of a wide range of topics. Gratzer was a friend of James D. Watson, and wrote the introduction and afterword of his A Passion for DNA. He died in London on 20 October 2021.

• The Longman Literary Companion to Science (1989) (editor)

• A Bedside Nature: Genius and Eccentricity in Science 1869–1953 (1996)

• The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-Deception and Human Frailty (2000) (Google Books)

• Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes (2002) [2004] (Google Books)

• Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition (2005) [2007] (Google Books)

• Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes (2009) (Google Books)

• Webpage at King's College London

• Reviews at the London Review of Books