History - People - Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson (Bufford, 1886- London, 1975) Tenure: Professor 1928 - 1930

Robert Robinson, one of the great synthetic organic chemists of the 20th century, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1947 for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids. The Nobel site has a brief biography online. Like Norman Collie before and Max McGlashan after him, he was a keen mountaineer.

His autobiography, now out of print, was entitled "Memoirs of a minor prophet: 70 years of organic chemistry". The title was echoed in Ken Leffek's biography of his rival and nemesis, "Sir Christopher Ingold - A Major Prophet of Organic Chemistry".

More information, and a rather better photograph, is available from the FECS Website .

This page last modified 20 September, 2010