Victor Trikojus

Victor Martin "Trik" Trikojus CBE, DSc, FAA (1902–1985) was an Australian professor of biochemistry.[1][2][3][4]

Trikojus was born on 5 February 1902 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, to August Trikojus (1857–1911) and Charlotte (née Thompson), his second wife.[5] His father was a hairdresser and tobacconist of Lithuanian background[6] born in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). His mother was of English background, born in Port Macquarie. He was the eldest of three children.[7]

Trikojus went to Sydney Technical High School where he studied physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, English, German, woodwork, metalwork, and mechanical drawing. He became head prefect and dux of the school, and a member of its rugby and rowing teams. It was here where he received the nickname "Trik", which is how he would be known to his family, friends and colleagues for the rest of his life.[2]

Trikojus earned a first class honours degree in organic chemistry from the University of Sydney in 1925.[8] In that same year, he was awarded an 1851 Exhibition science research scholarship and chose to study at the University of Oxford under William Henry Perkin Jr. where he also rowed in the Queens College Eight. Proof of Perkin's habit of assigning his students small pieces of larger problems, Trikojus' thesis was entitled 'The Introduction of the Methylenedioxy Group and of Similar Groups into the Aromatic Nucleus'. This thesis earned him his Doctorate of Philosophy in 1927. Following this, he was awarded a third year of his scholarship, which he spent in Munich, working under Heinrich Wieland at the Laboratorium des Staates. It was in Munich where Trikojus met his future wife, Russian émigrée Lisuscha Engels (born 1905 Fryanovo, Russian Empire, died 1984, Melbourne).[9]

After nine months in Munich, Trikojus returned to Sydney late in 1928, due to his mother's illness. There he found a position of lecturer in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Sydney. In 1932 he took up a lectureship in medical organic chemistry in the Department of Medicine. It was also the year he and Lisuscha married, living in Kings Cross. In newspaper articles, his wife's first name was often anglicised to Elizabeth.[10]

Until 1936, Trikojus' research was centred on discovering the chemical structures of organic compounds, and occasionally developing methods to synthesise organic compounds in the laboratory. He had published nine scientific papers on this kind of work. 1936 marked a major shift in his interests when the head of his department, Prof. Charles G. Lambie, published work on thyroid hormone metabolism. Trikojus began his sabbatical leave that year in Germany, at the University of Freiburg, working on thyrotropic hormone with Arnold Loeser. Lisuscha accompanied him, along with their first child, Nina (born 1934),[7] who died suddenly that year in Stuttgart of a respiratory infection.[11]

Trikojus and Lisuscha returned to Australia in June 1938. The day following their return, The Age ran a story where Trikojus was quoted as saying "I have been greatly impressed by the regeneration which Hitler has wrought in the nation" and "The anti-Jewish propaganda continues, but it is not serious... It is interesting to note that any Jews who are useful to the Nazis are kept in their posltions".[12] These statements, together with Trikojus' contact with scientists and friends in Germany and command of the German language, would prove disastrous on the outbreak of war. Legge and Gibson note that "a number of members of Lisuscha's family were still living in Germany, and he may simply have been careful to avoid making any remarks that might conceivably affect them."[2]

In 1940 Trikojus was chair of the Drugs Subcommittee of the Australian Association of Scientific Workers. The Australian pharmaceutical industry was insufficiently advanced to produce critical drugs in the event of closure of sea-lanes for imports from Europe and the USA. He organised the up-scaling of drug production for 11 different compounds, including drugs critical for the war effort including ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and sulphaguanidine. His previous experience in the development of methods to synthesise organic compounds was invaluable in his efforts.

In January 1941 Trikojus was arrested under National Security Regulations and spent 13 weeks in an internment camp. The case against him was never made clear and Trikojus never spoke publicly about it, however his extensive connections to Germany, his fluency in the language and the years spent there may have led some to doubt his loyalties. After a review, and pressure from his colleagues, he was released in April. He resumed his duties lecturing at the university and his roles coordinating methods of producing critical war drugs and handing them off to industry. This included organising the manufacture of 45 kg of sulfaguanidine in a laboratory in his university's medical school, for the New Guinea campaign in 1942.[13] His ceded patent rights for his sulfaguanidine manufacturing process to Monsanto so it would go into full-scale production quicker. His process for ascorbic acid synthesis was likewise handed over to Colonial Sugar Refineries (now CSR limited).

By 1943, the drug import routes were judged safe enough for work on domestic production to end, and the Trikojus family moved to Melbourne where he was appointed head of the Biochemistry Department at the University of Melbourne. He inherited an under-staffed and under-resourced department and expended much energy in administrative work to bring the department up to the standard of the other major universities. His work was further increased when student numbers swelled after the war, supported by the Commonwealth Reconstruction and Training Scheme. A new biochemistry building was needed, which Trikojus had a great deal of input in designing. The building was finally opened in stages between 1958 and 1961.

During his tenure, The University of Melbourne was transformed from an undergraduate teaching university to an internationally-oriented research university where collaboration between universities was encouraged. In 1948 Trikojus and his colleague F. J. R. Hird identified triiodothyronine (T3), however this discovery is generally attributed to Rosalind Pitt-Rivers, who read their paper but omitted mention of it. Trikojus continued building up the Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry, in which he integrated organic chemistry and biochemistry, and links to other disciplines. He was a foundation member (1955), chairman (1956), and honorary life member (1964) of the Australian Biochemical Society and a fellow (1954), and vice-president (1964-66) of the Australian Academy of Science. He was also Melbourne’s first professorial dean of graduate studies (1963-65) and a foundation member (1965-66) of the Australian Research Grants Committee.

Trikojus was well-liked by his colleagues and students, who found in him a curteous and compassionate authority figure with a legendary capacity for scientific research, teaching, and administrative work. On retirement in 1968, he was made an honorary research professor, and as appointed CBE in 1971. Suffering Parkinson’s disease in his later years, Victor Trikojus died on 27 January 1985 in the Melbourne suburb of Kew and was cremated.