Robert A. Holton

Robert A. Holton is an American chemist who is best known for his work on the total synthesis of taxol. He is a professor of chemistry at Florida State University.

He studied chemistry at the University of North Carolina and graduated with a BSc in 1965 from 1971 and his doctorate at Florida State University for PhD. This was followed by a postdoctoral stay of 1971-1973 at Stanford University. From 1973-1978 he was Assistant Professor at Purdue University and in the period 1978-1985 Associate Professor at Virginia Tech. Since 1985 he is a professor at Florida State University.

Within his research group many work on the synthesis of natural products have been conducted. Among other things, work on prostaglandin F2a, Naredin, aphidicolin, taxusin and Hemibrevitoxin B. Holton is the scientific director and co-founder of taxol Inc. and President and founder of MDS Research Foundation and the Syncure Inc.