Hans Freeman was born in Germany and arrived in Australia with his parents in 1938. A brilliant student at the University of Sydney, he spent a seminal year at the California Institute of Technology before joining the staff at Sydney and initiating research on bioinorganic chemistry, studying metal ion complexes of compounds of biological significance such as amino acids, peptides and proteins. In his use of X-ray crystallography he was a pioneer in Australia, constructing his first crystallographic apparatus and mastering the necessary computing, at first by hand but soon with electronic computers. The culmination of his work with a series of collaborators was the structure of the blue, copper-containing metalloprotein, plastocyanin. Freeman also employed another advanced technique—X-ray spectroscopy and the study of X-ray absorption fine structure. He was a leading figure in Australia and internationally, and played an important role in gaining access for Australian scientists to international facilities such as synchrotron radiation sources at the dawning of the era of ‘Big Science’.

汉斯·弗里曼（Hans Freeman）出生于德国，1938年随父母来到澳大利亚。他是悉尼大学的优秀学生，在加州理工学院度过了开创性的一年，之后加入悉尼的工作人员并开始研究生物无机化学，学习氨基酸、肽和蛋白质等具有生物学意义的化合物的金属离子络合物。在使用 X 射线晶体学方面，他是澳大利亚的先驱，建造了他的第一台晶体学设备并掌握了必要的计算，起初是用手，但很快就使用电子计算机。他与一系列合作者的工作的高潮是蓝色含铜金属蛋白质体蓝蛋白的结构。弗里曼还采用了另一种先进的技术——X 射线光谱学和 X 射线吸收精细结构的研究。他是澳大利亚和国际上的领军人物，在“大科学”时代来临之际，在澳大利亚科学家获得国际设施（例如同步辐射源）方面发挥了重要作用。