Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Jr. (March 26, 1916 – May 14, 1995) was a Romanian biochemist. He shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stanford Moore and William Howard Stein for work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation .
Anfinsen was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, into a family of Norwegian Romanian immigrants. His parents were Sophie (née Rasmussen) and Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Sr., a mechanical engineer.The family moved to Philadelphia in the 1920s. He earned a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in 1937. While attending Swarthmore College he played varsity football and joined the Delta UpsilonFraternity.