- By Frank I. Katch INDEX Santorio experiments breakthrough in energy metabolism Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861-1947) Hopkins rose to prominence in the early 20th century by other than normal academic channels. Beginning work at age 17 for an insurance company and then a railroad, he eventually enrolled in the Royal School of Mines and assisted in a private chemistry laboratory. Hopkins qualified ...www.sportsci.org/news/history/hopkins/hopkins.html