Robert Robinson (organic chemist)

Robert Robinson ( * September 13 1886 in Rufford, Nottinghamshire, † February 8, 1975 in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire ) was a British chemist. He received the 1947 Nobel Prize in Chemistry " for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids ".

Life and work

Robinson was the son of a textile manufacturer and studied after school near Leeds chemistry at Manchester University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1906 and in 1910 received his doctorate (D. Sc.). In 1912 he became Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Sydney and from 1915 he was a professor at the University of Liverpool. In 1920 he was Research Director at the British Dyestuffs Corporation. In 1921 he became a professor at the University of St. Andrews and 1922 at the University of Manchester. In 1928 he moved to the University of London and from 1930 he was Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, where he remained for the rest of his career. From 1955 he was a professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College. In 1955 it was director of the Shell Chemical Company and was its scientific advisor.

Robinson was in numerous government committees, such as an envoy of Great Britain on the first UNESCO conference in 1947.

1920 Robinson was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, in 1930, the Davy Medal, 1932, the Royal Medal in 1942 and the Copley Medal awarded him. 1945 to 1950 he was president of the Royal Society. In 1939 he was knighted. In 1949 he was awarded the Order of Merit. He was much honorary doctorates and Knight of the Legion of Honor in France. He received the Longstaff, Faraday and Flintoff Medals of the Chemical Society, the American Medal of Freedom and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute. He was a member of many foreign academies.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and 1939-1941 President of the Chemical Society, whose every two years taking place in 1962 introduced Robinson Lectures are named after him. In 1958 he became president of the Society for the Chemical Industry, and in 1955 the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Various reactions of organischenen chemistry bear his name: the Robinson annulation of polycyclic compounds, the Robinson - Gabriel synthesis of oxazoles and the Robinson - Schopf synthesis of tropinone.

Robinson was an avid mountaineer in his youth. He was married since 1912 with Gertrude Maude Walsh ( 1886-1954 ), who was also a chemist and with whom he worked (for example, at the Piloty -Robinson pyrrole synthesis ). With her he had a son and a daughter. After her death in 1954 he married 1957, the US-American Stearn Sylvia Hillstrom.

Chess players

Robinson was also a strong correspondence player. So he took the mid-1940s in part to the Correspondence Chess Olympiad. In 1946 he was proposed as President of the World Correspondence Chess Association ICCA. Due to lack of time he had BH Wood precedence.

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