Robert Robinson (chemist)

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Distinguish Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Sir Robert Robinson Template:Postnominals<ref name="frs">Template:Cite journal</ref> (13 September 1886 – 8 February 1975) was a British organic chemist<ref name="organic"/> and Nobel laureate recognised in 1947 for his research on plant dyestuffs (anthocyanins) and alkaloids. In 1947, he also received the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. Template:Commons category

Biography

Early life and education

He was born at Rufford House Farm, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the son of James Bradbury Robinson, a maker of surgical dressings, and his wife, Jane Davenport.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Robinson went to school at the Chesterfield Grammar School and the private Fulneck School. He then studied chemistry at the University of Manchester, graduating BSc in 1905. In 1907 he was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851<ref>1851 Royal Commission Archives</ref> to continue his research at the University of Manchester.

He was appointed as the first Professor of Pure and Applied Organic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney in 1912.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He then took up the Chair in Organic Chemistry at the University of Liverpool (1915–20) and following this became the Director of Research at the British Dyestuffs Corporation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was briefly at St Andrews University (1921–22) and then took the Chair of Organic Chemistry at Manchester University, previously held by Arthur Lapworth and William Henry Perkin Jr.. Like Lapworth and Perkin, Robinson presented a paper (The Conjugation of Partial Valencies) to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.<ref> MEMOIRS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE MANCHESTER LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Volume LXIV (1919-20)</ref>

In 1928 he moved from there to be a professor at University College London where he stayed only two years. He was the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University from 1930 and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Robinson was elected an International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1934,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1944,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Robinson Close, in the Science Area at Oxford, is named after him,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as is the Robert Robinson Laboratory at the University of Liverpool, the Sir Robert Robinson Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at the University of Manchester<ref>In Burlington Street and opened in 1950: Charlton, H. B. (1951) Portrait of a University. Manchester University Press; plan facing p. 172; since demolished.</ref> and the Robinson and Cornforth Laboratories at the University of Sydney.

Robinson was a strong amateur chess player. He represented Oxford University in a friendly match with a team from Bletchley Park in December 1944;<ref>Nicholas Metropolis (ed.), History of Computing in the Twentieth Century; chapter Pioneering Work on Computers at Bletchley (I. J. Good), p38</ref> in which he lost his game to pioneering computer scientist I. J. Good.<ref>British Chess magazine, February 1945, p36</ref> He was president of the British Chess Federation from 1950 to 1953,<ref>Nobel Prize bio</ref> and with Raymond Edwards he co-authored the book The Art and Science of Chess (Batsford, 1972).<ref>Chemical and Engineering news</ref>

Research

His synthesis of tropinone (a precursor for atropine & benztropine) in 1917 was not only a big step in alkaloid chemistry but also showed that tandem reactions in a one-pot synthesis are capable of forming bicyclic molecules.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Tropinone synthesis

Tropinone synthesis

He invented the symbol for benzene having a circle in the middle whilst working at St Andrews University in 1923.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He is known for inventing the use of the curly arrow to represent electron movement,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and he is also known for discovering the molecular structures of morphine and penicillin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Robinson annulation has had application in the total synthesis of steroids.

Alongside Edward Charles Dodds, Robinson had also been involved in the original synthesis of diethylstilboestrol.<ref name="Dodds2008">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1946 he determined the structure of strychnine.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1957 Robinson founded the journal Tetrahedron with fifty other editors for Pergamon Press.Template:Fact

Publications

• The Structural Relationship of Natural Products (1955)

Family

He married twice. In 1912 he married Gertrude Maud Walsh. Following her death in 1954, in 1957 he married a widow, Mrs Stern Sylvia Hillstrom (née Hershey).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• List of presidents of the Royal Society

External links

• Template:Nobelprize including the Nobel Lecture on 12 December 1947 Some Polycyclic Natural Products
• ABC Online Forum
• Template:Cite magazine