Elkan R. Blout was a professor of biochemistry at Harvard University. Elkan was born in New York City on July 2nd 1919 and was the only child in his family. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1969. In 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Science “for his pioneering studies of protein conformation and devotion to the scientific enterprise of the Nation.” He enrolled in the chemistry department at Columbia for graduate studies and completed the PhD in 1942 at the still tender age of 23. Blout died in December 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.