Sumner, James Batcheller (1887–1955), a United States biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 1946. Sumner was the first to isolate and crystallize an enzyme and show it to be a protein (1926). His work helped to stimulate research in enzymes and viruses. Sumner was born in Canton, Massachusetts. He lost his left arm in a hunting accident in childhood. In 1914 he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and joined the staff of Cornell University, where he remained the rest of his life.