View source for Derek Barton

{{Short description|English chemist and Nobel Prize laureate}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist 
| honorific_prefix  = [[Sir]]
| name              = Derek Barton
| image             = File:Derek-Harold-Richard-Barton.jpg|250px
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE}}
| caption           = Barton in 1954
| birth_name = Derek Harold Richard Barton
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1918|9|8|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Gravesend]], [[Kent]], England
| nationality       = British
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1998|3|16|1918|9|8|df=y}} 
| death_place       = [[College Station, Texas]], U.S.
| resting_place     = [[La Grange, Texas|La Grange Cemetery, Texas]], U.S.
| field             = [[Chemistry]]
| work_institution  = {{Plainlist|
* [[Imperial College London]]
* [[Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles]]
* [[Texas A&M University]]
* [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College London]]}}
| alma_mater        = [[Imperial College London]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Ian Heilbron]]
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
* [[Jack Baldwin (chemist)|Jack Baldwin]]
* [[Anthony Barrett]]
* [[David Crich]]
}}
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Barton reaction]]
* [[2-tert-Butyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine|Barton's base]]
* [[Barton decarboxylation]]
* [[Barton–Kellogg reaction]]
* [[Barton–McCombie deoxygenation]]
* [[Barton–Zard synthesis]]
* [[Hydrazone iodination|Barton vinyl iodine procedure]]}}

| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Corday-Morgan Prize]] {{small|(1949)}}
* [[Tilden Prize]] {{small|(1952)}}
* [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] {{small|(1954)}}<ref name=frs/>
* [[Ernest Guenther Award]] {{small|(1957)}}
* [[Davy Medal]] {{small|(1961)}}
* [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] {{small|(1969)}}
* [[Royal Medal]] {{small|(1972)}}
* [[Knight Bachelor]] {{small|(1972)}}
* [[Copley Medal]] {{small|(1980)}}
* [[Priestley Medal]] {{small|(1995)}}}}
}}
[[File:Knights Bachelor Insignia.png|thumb|right|80px| Insignia of a Knight Bachelor]]
'''Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal |author=Ley, S. V. |author2=Myers, R. M. |date=2002 |title=Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton. 8 September 1918 – 16 March 1998 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=48|pages=1–23 |jstor=3650246|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2002.0001 |doi-access=free }}</ref> (8 September 1918 – 16 March 1998) was an English [[organic chemist]] and [[Nobel Prize laureate]] for 1969.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Albert Cotton | first1 = F. | title = Derek H. R. Barton, 8 September 1918 · 16 March 1998 | journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society | volume = 144 | issue = 3|pages = 292–296|year = 2000| jstor = 1515591 }}</ref><ref>{{Nobelprize}}</ref><ref>Barton's Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1969/barton-lecture.html The Principles of Conformational Analysis]</ref><ref>[http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/index.rss Video podcast of Barton talking about conformational analysis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516234558/http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/index.rss |date=16 May 2006 }}</ref>

==Education and early life==
Barton was born in [[Gravesend, Kent]], to William Thomas and Maude Henrietta Barton (''née'' Lukes).

He attended [[Gravesend Grammar School]] (1926–29), [[The King's School, Rochester]] (1929–32), [[Tonbridge School]] (1932–35) and Medway Technical College (1937–39). In 1938 he entered [[Imperial College London]], where he graduated in 1940 and obtained his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] degree in [[Organic Chemistry]] in 1942.

==Career and research==
From 1942 to 1944, Barton was a government research chemist, then from 1944 to 1945 he worked for [[Albright and Wilson]] in [[Birmingham]]. He then became Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry of Imperial College, and from 1946 to 1949 he was [[Imperial Chemical Industries|ICI]] Research Fellow.

During 1949 and 1950, he was a visiting lecturer in natural products chemistry at [[Harvard University]], and was then appointed reader in organic chemistry and, in 1953, professor at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College]]. In 1955, he became [[Regius Professor of Chemistry (Glasgow)|Regius Professor of Chemistry]] at the [[University of Glasgow]], and in 1957, he was appointed professor of organic chemistry at [[Imperial College, London]]. In 1950, Barton showed that organic molecules could be assigned a preferred [[Conformational isomerism|conformation]] based upon results accumulated by chemical physicists, in particular by [[Odd Hassel]]. Using this new technique of [[conformational analysis]], he later determined the geometry of many other natural product molecules.

In 1969, Barton shared the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with Odd Hassel for “contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry."

In 1958, Barton was appointed Arthur D. Little Visiting Professor of [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], and in 1959 Karl Folkers Visiting Professor at the [[University of Illinois|Universities of Illinois]] and [[University of Wisconsin|Wisconsin]]. The same year, he was elected a foreign honorary member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=19 May 2011}}</ref>

In 1949, he was the first recipient of the [[Corday-Morgan Medal]] and Prize awarded by the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]]. In 1954 he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] and the International Academy of Science, Munich as well as, in 1956, a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]; in 1965 he was appointed member of the [[Council for Scientific Policy]]. He was [[knight]]ed in 1972, becoming formally [[Style (manner of address)|styled]] Sir Derek in Britain. In 1978, he became Director of the [[Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles]] (ICSN - Gif Sur-Yvette) in [[France]].

In 1977, on the occasion of the centenary of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the British Post Office honoured him, and 5 other Nobel Prize-winning British chemists, with a series of four postage stamps featuring aspects of their discoveries.<ref>New Scientist 10 February 1977 p. 319</ref>

He moved to the United States in 1986 (specifically [[Texas]]) and became [[distinguished professor]] at [[Texas A&M University]] and held this position for 12 years until his death.

In 1996, Barton published a comprehensive volume of his works, entitled ''Reason and Imagination: Reflections on Research in Organic Chemistry.''

As well as for his work on conformation, his name is remembered in a number of reactions in organic chemistry, such as the [[Barton reaction]], the [[Barton decarboxylation]], and the [[Barton-McCombie deoxygenation]].

The newly built Barton Science Centre at [[Tonbridge School]] in [[Kent]], where he was educated for 4 years, completed in 2019, is named after him.

== Honours and awards==
Barton was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1954|Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1954]].<ref name="frs"/>
In 1966 he was elected a Member of the [[German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/1814/|title=List of Members|website=www.leopoldina.org|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008180538/http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/1814/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was elected to the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1970 and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1978.<ref>{{Cite web |title=D. H. R. Barton |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/47097.html |access-date=2022-07-14 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Derek+Barton&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-07-14 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
* [[File:Knight Bachelor ribbon.svg|45px]] - [[Knight Bachelor]] (1972)
* [[File:Legion Honneur Chevalier ribbon.svg|45px]] - [[Légion d'honneur]] (1972)

==Personal life==
Sir Derek married three times: Jeanne Kate Wilkins (on 20 December 1944); Christiane Cognet (died 1992) (in 1969); and Judith Von-Leuenberger Cobb (1939-2012) (in 1993).<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-69495|title=Barton, Sir Derek Harold Richard (1918-1998), organic chemist {{!}} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/69495|access-date=2019-01-27|year=2004|last1=Coley|first1=N. G.}}</ref> He had a son by his first marriage.{{when|date=December 2015}}

==References==
{{Reflist|35em}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1969 ''The Principles of Conformational Analysis''

{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1969 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Copley Medallists 1951–2000}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Derek}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1998 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Gravesend, Kent]]
[[Category:People educated at Gravesend Grammar School]]
[[Category:People educated at Tonbridge School]]
[[Category:People educated at King's School, Rochester]]
[[Category:Alumni of Imperial College London]]
[[Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London]]
[[Category:Academics of Imperial College London]]
[[Category:Harvard University staff]]
[[Category:British organic chemists]]
[[Category:British physical chemists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Texas A&M University faculty]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:English Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]]
[[Category:Regius Professors]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:20th-century American people]]