A. Ian Scott

Alastair Ian Scott (born April 10, 1928 in Glasgow ; † April 18, 2007 ) was a Scottish-born American chemist ( organic chemistry ).

Life

Scott graduated from the University of Glasgow with a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a PhD in chemistry (Ph.D.) in 1952 with RA Raphael. In 1963 he earned another doctorate (D. Sc.) And in 1968 a master's degree from Yale University . In 1952/53 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University with MS Newman and from 1954 to 1956 at Birkbeck College of the University of London with Derek HR Barton . From 1956 he was at the University of Glasgow, where he became a lecturer in 1957 . There he developed (biomimetic) syntheses of griseofulvin and tetracycline based on nature . In 1962 he became a professor at the University of British Columbia and in 1965 at the University of Sussex . From 1968 he was a professor at Yale University, 1977 to 1980 at Texas A&M University , 1980 to 1982 professor of organic chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and from 1982 professor at Texas AM University again. There he was Davidson Professor of Science from 1982 and from 2002 on the Robert Welch Chair in chemistry. He was the director of the Texas A&M Center for Biological NMR.

He conducted research at the interface between organic chemistry, NMR spectroscopy and genetic engineering methods (use of enzymes produced in this way) in the investigation and development of syntheses of natural substances (alkaloids, antibiotics, vitamins, taxol , chlorophyll). In particular, he was able to explain how bacteria synthesize vitamin B 12 and then develop a synthesis themselves. In 2000 he received the Welch Award in Chemistry . The laudation for the Welch Prize highlights his exceptional contributions to organic chemistry and biochemistry, in particular his elegant use of every kind of available physical and biological techniques to address complex structural problems in the chemistry of natural products and in the biosynthesis of, for example, vitamin B 12 solve .

He was honorary doctorate from the University of Coimbra and the University of Paris VI . In 1994 he received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the ACS and its Ernest Guenther Award in 1975 , the Corday Morgan Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1964 , and in 2001 the Davy Medal and the Queen's Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 2002 he was Texas Scientist of the Year, 1996 Bakerian Lecturer of the Royal Society and 1994 Centenary Lecturer of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He received the Tetrahedron Prize (1995) for organic chemistry and the Natural Products Chemistry Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2003 he was awarded the Nakanishi Prize.

Scott was a US citizen.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh , the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the European Academy of Sciences. He was also an honorary member of the Japanese Pharmacological Society.

He had been married since 1950 and had a son and a daughter.

Fonts

• Interpretation of the ultraviolet spectra of natural products , Oxford, Pergamon Press 1964
• with TK Devon (editor) Handbook of naturally occuring compounds , Academic Press, from 1972
• with Pierre Potier (Editor) The Bartonian Legacy , World Scientific 2000
• with Thomas O. Baldwin, Frank Raushel (editor) Chemical aspects of enzyme biotechnology , New York, Plenum Press 1991 (IUCCP Symposium, Texas A&M University)

Web links

• Biography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death report at Texas A&M University
2. ↑ Biographical data from American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2005
3. ↑ Laudation for the Welch Prize. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 30, 2011 ; accessed on January 28, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.