Nobel medal to be auctioned to help train scientists

[LONDON] A Nobel Prize Medal for medicine awarded to German Jewish refugee Hans Krebs is to be auctioned by Sotheby's to raise money to train scientists, the auction house said on Thursday.

Mr Krebs won the medal in 1953 when the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was divided equally between Krebs, for his discovery of the citric acid cycle, and Fritz Lipmann, for work on enzymes.

The Krebs medal will be offered for sale on July 14 and has a pre-auction estimate of 250,000 to 300,000 pounds (S$500,000 to S$600,000), Sotheby's said.

The proceeds are to be used by The Sir Hans Krebs Trust for its work "to provide grants for the support of refugee scientists and the training of young scientists in the biomedical sciences," Sotheby's said.

Mr Krebs fled Nazi Germany in the early 1930s and settled in Britain, where he received assistance to resume his work as a scientist.

Mr Krebs' son John, a member of Britain's House of Lords, said in a statement that he was sure his father would have supported the sale of the medal to provide funds for a similar purpose.

"My father was a passionate believer in the importance of training the next generation. I believe that he would have thoroughly approved of the creation of the Trust by the sale of his Medal," Mr Krebs is quoted as saying in the statement.

REUTERS