History of biochemistry
The term “biochemistry” itself is derived from the combining form "bio-", meaning "life", and "chemistry". The word is first recorded in English in 1848, while in 1877, Felix Hoppe-Seyler used the term ("Biochemie" in German) in the foreword to the first issue of "Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie" (Journal of Physiological Chemistry) as a synonym for physiological chemistry and argued for the setting up of institutes dedicate to its studies. Nevertheless, several sources cite German chemist Carl Neuberg as having coined the term for the new discipline in 1903, and some credit it to Franz Hofmeister.
JHSPH Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The Department has changed names three times in its history from the Department of Chemical Hygiene, when it was founded, to the Department of Biochemistry by the time Roger H. Herriott was its Chair in 1948, to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by the time Roger McMacken was its chair in 1990. Yet, since that time it has remained as the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.