James Irvine (chemist)

Sir James Colquhoun Irvine (born May 9, 1877 in Glasgow , † June 12, 1952 in St Andrews ) was a Scottish chemist ( organic chemistry ).

James Irvine was the son of a factory owner (Colquhoun is his mother's maiden name). He studied at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow and the University of St Andrews ( Bachelor Accounts in chemistry). After that he went to Leipzig , where he at Wilhelm Ostwald and John Wislicenus studied and 1901 with the work On certain derivatives of Orthomethoxybenzaldehydes doctorate was. He became a Lecturer in 1904 and Professor of Chemistry at St Andrews in 1909. In 1911 he became dean of science and in 1921 principal. He was also the Acting Principle of University College Dundee and was active in university education throughout the Commonwealth .

He dealt with the methylation of hydrocarbons, used silver oxide for the methylation of sugar in 1901 (and developed the Purdie methylation with T. Purdie in 1903) and was the first to isolate methylated sugar compounds (trimethyl and tetramethyl glucose). He extended the techniques to sugars with double ring systems and more complex sugars.

In 1925 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . In 1926 he received the Willard Gibbs Medal . In 1948 he was inducted into the Order of the British Empire as Knight Commander . He was a Fellow of the Royal Society , a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a member of the American Philosophical Society . He received thirteen honorary doctorates (including Cambridge , Oxford , Edinburgh , Princeton , Yale , Glasgow , Toronto , Columbia ).

Web links

• Biography and his appointment as principal at St Andrews
• biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of James C. Irvine at academictree.org, accessed on February 13, 2018.
2. ^ T. Purdie, JC Irvine The alkylation of sugars , Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions 83, 1903, 1021
3. ^ Member History: James C. Irvine. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 9, 2018 .