Background
Born at Portuguese Stanley in 1942 to New Zealanders Harold and Moya (née Boak) Baker, he spent his early life in the Falkland Islands, where his father was the superintendent of education.
Born at Portuguese Stanley in 1942 to New Zealanders Harold and Moya (née Boak) Baker, he spent his early life in the Falkland Islands, where his father was the superintendent of education.
He was educated at King"s College, Auckland from 1956 to 1960.
He is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Auckland. The family returned to New Zealand in 1948. After studying chemistry at the University of Auckland, completing his Doctor of Philosophy in 1967, he conducted postdoctoral research on the structure of insulin with Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin at the University of Oxford.
He then took up an academic post at Massey University, where he determined the structure of the kiwifruit enzyme actinidin.
In 1997 he moved back to the University of Auckland where he became professor of structural biology and later direct of the Maurice Wilkins Center for Molecular Diversity. He also served as president of the International Union of Crystallography between 1996 and 1999.
He was awarded the Rutherford Medal, the highest honour in New Zealand science, in 2006.
