Robert R. Williams
Robert Ramapatnam Williams (born February 16, 1886 in Nellore , India , † October 2, 1965 in Summit (New Jersey) ) was an American chemist.
Williams was the son of a missionary and studied chemistry from 1903 at Ottawa University in Ottawa (Kansas) and at the University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree in 1907 and a master's degree in 1908. He was then a teacher in the Philippines and at a state laboratory in Manila, was 1911/12 for further studies in the USA and from 1915 at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington DC During World War I he was called up to chemical warfare and then he went into industry, most recently at Bell Telephone Labs, where he worked in 1925 Became director of chemistry. In 1945 he went to the Cottrell Research Corporation as a director and became chairman of the Williams Waterman Foundation, which he founded to combat nutritional diseases. From 1946 to 1952 he directed a program against Beri-Beri in the Philippines.
A pathologist (Vedder) of the US Army Medical Corps pointed out to him the presence of a substance against Beri-Beri in rice husks as early as 1912 and he worked on the insulation during his time as an industrial chemist in his spare time, first in his garage, then in the laboratory of Teachers College at Columbia University, supported by Waterman from 1924. In 1933 he was able to isolate thiamine (vitamin B 1 ). In this, the Dutch Barend Coenraad Petrus Jansen (and his colleague Willem Frederik Donath ) had anticipated him, but in contrast to this he found the correct sum formula and structure (as well as independently in Germany Rudolf Grewe ). Two years later, in 1935, he was able to produce the vitamin synthetically (total synthesis). In 1942 Williams was elected to the American Philosophical Society and 1945 to the National Academy of Sciences , in 1947 he was awarded the Perkin Medal . The proceeds from his patent, which he sold to Merck, went to his foundation.
In 1936 Hans Andersag and Kurt Westphal (chemists) at BASF also succeeded in synthesizing vitamin B1, but Williams was able to win the following patent disputes in the USA (1942 judgment).
He is the brother of the chemist Roger John Williams .
literature
- Entry in Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists, Harri Deutsch 1989
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Williams, Robert R. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Williams, Robert Ramapatnam (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 16, 1886 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nellore |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 2, 1965 |
| Place of death | Summit (New Jersey) |