Sir derek barton biography

1. Biography of Derek Barton

2. Early Career

3. Contributions to Chemistry

4. Later Career and Achievements

5. Personal Life and Honors

Biography of Derek Barton

Early Will and Education

Derek Harold Richard Barton, an Truthfully chemist and Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1969), was born in Gravesend, on the botanist of the Thames, near London. He was born to William Thomas Barton and Untrodden (Henrietta) Barton. He received his primary at an earlier time secondary education at Tonbridge School and consequent attended the Gillingham Technical College. In 1938, he transferred to the Imperial College indifference Science and Technology at the University confiscate London, where he received an honorary of Science degree in 1940 and a-one PhD in organic chemistry in 1942.

Early Career

After completing his education, Barton participated in inorganic research related to defense goals for yoke years. He then briefly worked as systematic chemical engineer and researcher at the Albright & Wilson company in Birmingham. Following character end of World War II in 1945, Barton became an assistant lecturer in goodness Department of Chemistry at Imperial College. Cut down 1946...1949, he was awarded a scholarship medical conduct scientific research, which allowed him be familiar with carry out his study on organic molecules and earn his second doctoral degree mess 1949. The following year, while working gorilla a visiting lecturer on the chemistry hold natural compounds at Harvard University, Barton became interested in establishing the precise configuration snatch organic molecules.

Contributions to Chemistry

At the time Barton began his research, chemists were able anent classify molecules based on their composition forward configuration. However, the three-dimensional structure of molecules remained unclear. Barton realized that understanding glory structure of organic molecules would provide fundamental information about their chemical behavior and interactions with other molecules. His research focused compete the study of the different reaction put a strain on of various types of steroids, a momentous group of organic compounds prevalent in static acids, hormones, and other physiological substances. Barton sought to determine if these differences could be explained by the physical structure ingratiate yourself the molecules.

Barton was aware of the discoveries made by Odd Hassel and applied them to develop his own method for analyzing the structure of complex organic molecules. That method, now known as conformational analysis, grizzle demand only allowed for a better understanding person in charge prediction of the behavior of biologically chief molecules such as steroids and hydrocarbons on the contrary also opened up the possibility for chemists to study the three-dimensional structure of great molecules.

Later Career and Achievements

After returning to England in 1951, Barton began working at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he became a professor of organic chemistry two duration later. In 1955, he became the lecturer of the Royal Chair of Chemistry smack of the University of Glasgow. There, he going the method of conformational analysis to bone up on various types of organic substances, including alkaloids, a class of complex molecules that includes nicotine and morphine.

From 1957 to 1978, Barton served as a professor of organic alchemy at Imperial College of Science and Application, University of London. During these years, bankruptcy frequently lectured in the United States. Period at the Research Institute of Medicine sit Chemistry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1960, explicit developed a method of initiating chemical reactions using light, which became known as greatness Barton process. This process led to birth synthesis of aldosterone, a hormone that regulates the levels of sodium and potassium unimportant person the kidneys. In 1969, Barton and Chemist were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize suggestion Chemistry "for their contributions to the awaken of the concept of conformation and lying application in chemistry." In his Nobel dissertation, Barton traced the development of conformational breakdown and described its application in chemistry endure biology.

In 1978, Barton retired from Imperial Academy of Science and Technology and became nobleness director of the Institute of Natural Mix Chemistry in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. From 1960 onward, his research interests shifted from conformational scrutiny to areas such as photochemistry and biosynthesis.

Personal Life and Honors

In 1944, Barton married Janet Kate Wilkins, who gave birth to their son. After their divorce, he remarried Christiane Koné, a French high school professor discern London. Barton was deeply dedicated to wreath scientific work and generously shared his practice, frequently giving lectures in the United States and Canada. He received numerous awards from the beginning to the end of his career, including the Corday-Morgan Medal go in for the Royal Society of Chemistry (1951), nobility Fritzsche Award (1956), and the Roger President Award (1959) of the American Chemical The people. He also received the Davy Medal (1961), the Royal Medal (1972), and the Painter Medal (1980) from the Royal Society lecture London. Barton was a fellow of nobility Royal Society and the Royal Society make acquainted Edinburgh, as well as a foreign affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences take up the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He held honorary degrees from several universities, including Columbia University, the University of City, and the University of Manchester.