Derek HR Barton

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Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS (born September 8, 1918 in Gravesend , Kent ; † March 16, 1998 in College Station , Texas ) was a British chemist , clearly practice-oriented scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry .

Live and act

Derek Barton was born on September 8, 1918 to William Thomas Barton and his wife Maud Henriette in Gravesend, Kent County. After graduating from general school, he began studying at Imperial College of the University of London from 1938 . He completed this course in 1940 with a B.Sc.Hons (1st class) and received his doctorate in 1942 under Ewart Jones on a topic of organic chemistry . He then worked as a chemist in a government program for two years. After completing this work, he moved to Imperial College in Birmingham in 1944, where he was a lecturer for two years. He then worked from 1946 to 1949 as a research assistant at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The visiting professorial position at Harvard University (USA) in the Department of Natural Product Chemistry , which began in 1949, was of decisive importance for his further professional development . Here he met the American scientist and chemist Robert B. Woodward (1917-1979). From this point on, both were linked by a lifelong scientific collaboration and close friendship. This marked the beginning of his groundbreaking scientific work on conformational analysis . In a short elaboration with proving experiments under the title "The conformation of the steroid nucleus" (1950), Derek Barton immediately attracted the attention of the scientific world, but especially of scientists working in the field of organic chemistry. The importance of this work was that it provided a theoretical foundation in the field of steroid structure and its synthesis. In this way, numerous findings that had been discovered in the first half of the 20th century on the chemical and biological behavior of steroids were combined with one clear solution.

After the end of his visiting professorship , Derek Barton returned to London in 1950 and took up a position at Birkbeck College, University of London. There he taught organic chemistry and continued his research on the structure and synthesis of steroids. By the mid-1950s, he and Robert B. Woodward had completed their synthesis of lanosterol , a key intermediate in steroid biosynthesis. In 1953 he became a professor at Birkbeck College and in 1955 he moved to the University of Glasgow as Regius Professor of Chemistry . That was only a short intermediate stage, because he returned in 1957 as a professor at Imperial College in London. Here he introduced a number of pedagogical innovations to equip the teaching activity with more practical relevance and to further improve the quality. This mainly concerned the implementation of seminars for joint problem solving and tutorials. He and his working style were characterized by the fact that he pursued important topics, driven by the demand for aesthetic standards in scientific work and his own intellectual curiosity. And when choosing the topics, he focused above all on creating benefits. He always enjoyed raising problems and looking for solutions together. He valued finding elegant and efficient solutions for particularly difficult problems. When all of these ideals came together in one project, as in his work on the synthesis of aldosterone , a natural steroid made from cholesterol that controls the balance of electrolytes in the body, he was especially happy.

This time in the work of Derek Barton was also marked by a significant increase in his travel activities with the aim of passing on his scientific knowledge. He was visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1958), at universities in Illinois and Wisconsin (1959), and at Berkeley (1960). Together with the Schering-Plow Corporation (USA) he worked on the subject of " Aldosterone " at his Research Institute for Medicine and Chemistry in Cambridge . In doing so, he discovered what is now known as the Barton reaction , a photochemical process that enables a relatively simple method for the synthesis of aldosterone. That was a great success of his research work. From this, close practical relationships developed between medical research and industry in the form of the Schering-Plow Corporation for almost 40 years. This path of success could be continued when Derek Barton expanded his research agenda in the areas of radical chemistry and photochemistry on this basis . In 1969, Barton and the Norwegian Odd Hassel (1897-1981) received the Nobel Prize in Chemistryfor their work in the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry ”. One of Derek Barton's best-known students is Jack Baldwin (born 1938), who discovered the Baldwin rules named after him .

Although shortly before his official retirement, the years from 1975/1976 were still characterized by tireless activities and productive work results. A year before his retirement at the Imperial College of the University of London Derek Barton was in 1978 appointed as research director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry (ICSN) in Gif-Sur-Yvette (France). He held this position until 1985. In constant search for usefulness and effectiveness in science, he devoted most of his time and energy to developing new synthetic methods through the use of free radicals. Not only was it a challenge, but he himself saw these issues as a real task for a chemist of his stature. After reaching the statutory retirement age (in France 1986) he accepted a very prestigious professorship at A & M University (TAM) in College Station / Texas (USA), which he held until his death. Although Derek Barton is best known in the public for his Nobel Prize-winning scientific findings on conformational analysis , he also made significant contributions to the advancement of organic chemistry. As a creative scientist, he traveled a lot, fulfilled teaching assignments, accepted visiting professorships and worked for many years as an industrial consultant. The constant exchange of knowledge and the urgent need for constant critical review of his findings and ideas were not only important axioms for him, but also a standard of his own as a scientist.

The Barton reaction , the Barton arylation and, together with Stuart W. McCombie, the Barton-McCombie deoxygenation were named after him .

Sir Derek Barton died on March 16, 1998 in College Station in Texas (USA).

Honors and memberships

In 1949 the Royal Society of Chemistry awarded him the first ever Corday Morgan Medal . In 1954 he was elected a member (Fellow) of the Royal Society and in 1956 a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1957 he received the Ernest Guenther Award , he received the Lavoisier Medal and in 1970 the Robert Robinson Award . In 1960 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1966 to the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina , 1970 to the National Academy of Sciences and 1978 to the American Philosophical Society . In 1972 he was ennobled and a member of the Legion of Honor .

In 1977 the British Post, like other British chemists, honored him with a stamp on the occasion of the centenary of the Royal Institute of Chemistry.

The Royal Society of Chemistry awards him the Sir Derek H. Barton Gold Medal in his honor .

Individual evidence

  1. biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Derek Harold Richard Barton at academictree.org, accessed on January 6, 2018th
  2. Leo B. Slater, Sir Derek HRBarton - Brtish Chemist in: https: www. britica.com/biography/Derek-Barton
  3. ^ The University of Glasgow Story Sir Derek Barton ; from the University of Glasgow website, accessed January 20, 2015.
  4. Leo B. Slater, Sir Derek HRBarton - Brtish Chemist in: https: www. britica.com/biography/Derek-Barton
  5. Nobel Prize biography of Derek HR Barton in: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1969/barton/biographical/
  6. Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer and Wolfgang Müller with the collaboration of Heinz Cassebaum : Lexicon of important chemists , Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1988, pp. 29–30, ISBN 3-323-00185-0 .

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