Background
Dixon was born on March 25, 1930 in Durban, South Africa; the son of Walter James and Ruth (Nightingale) Dixon. His family moved to the United Kingdom, where he spent his childhood and early adult years. He naturalized in Canada in 1951.
Dixon was born on March 25, 1930 in Durban, South Africa; the son of Walter James and Ruth (Nightingale) Dixon. His family moved to the United Kingdom, where he spent his childhood and early adult years. He naturalized in Canada in 1951.
Dixon attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys. He received an Open Scholarship to Trinity College of the University of Cambridge where he earned honorary degrees of a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in 1948.
Also Gordon was given a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Toronto in 1956. He undertook postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington from 1954 to 1958.
Dixon began his career as a member of staff at the MRC Unit for Research in Cell Metabolism at the University of Oxford in 1958. A year later he returned to Canada and became a research associate of the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories at the University of Toronto.
Then in 1960, Gordon took a position of an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto, during which time he made seminal discoveries related to understanding the structure of the protein hormone insulin that subsequently led to its complete chemical synthesis.
In 1963, Dixon moved to Vancouver and was appointed a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. Nine years later he served as a head of Department in the Biochemistry Group at the University of Sussex. In 1974, Gordon became a professor of medical biochemistry at the University of Calgary, where he worked until 1994. Also he was a head of the Department at the same university from 1983 to 1988.
Dixon was a president of the Canadian Biochemical Society from 1982 to 1983, Pan-American Biochemical Society in 1987-1990. He was a member of the Executive of the International Union of Biochemistry between 1988-1994, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London.
On November 20, 1954 Gordon Dixon married Sylvia W. Gillen. They have 4 children and 12 grandchildren.