Sir Robert Robinson  (13 September 1886 – 8 February 1975) was a British organic chemist and Nobel laureate recognised in 1947 for his research on plant dyestuffs (anthocyanins) and alkaloids.
In 1947, he also received the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm.
Biography
Early life
He was born at Rufford House Farm, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire the son of James Bradbury Robinson, a maker of surgical dressings, and his wife, Jane Davenport.
Robinson went to school at the Chesterfield Grammar School and the private Fulneck School.
He then studied Chemistry at the University of Manchester, graduating BSc in 1905.
In 1907 he was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 18511851 Royal Commission Archives to continue his research at the University of Manchester.
He was appointed as the first Professor of Pure and Applied Organic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney in 1912.http://www.chem.usyd.edu.au/aboutus/laureates.html He was briefly at St Andrews University (1920–22) and then was offered the Chair of Organic Chemistry at Manchester University.
In 1928 he moved from there to be a professor at University College London where he stayed only two years.
He was the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University from 1930 and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Robinson Close, in the Science Area at Oxford, is named after him, as is the Robert Robinson Laboratory at the University of Liverpool, the Sir Robert Robinson Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at the University of ManchesterIn Burlington Street and opened in 1950: Charlton, H. B. (1951) Portrait of a University.
Manchester University Press; plan facing p. 172; since demolished.
and the Robinson and Cornforth Laboratories at the University of Sydney.
Robinson was a strong amateur chess player.
He represented Oxford University in a friendly match with a team from Bletchley Park in December 1944;Nicholas Metropolis (ed.), History of Computing in the Twentieth Century; chapter Pioneering Work on Computers at Bletchley (I. J. Good), p38 in which he lost his game to pioneering computer scientist I. J. Good.British Chess magazine, February 1945, p36 He was president of the British Chess Federation from 1950–53,Nobel Prize bio and with Raymond Edwards he co-authored the book The Art and Science of Chess (Batsford, 1972).Chemical and Engineering news Research
His synthesis of tropinone (a precursor for atropine & benztropine) in 1917 was not only a big step in alkaloid chemistry but also showed that tandem reactions in a one-pot synthesis are capable of forming bicyclic molecules.
centre|500px|Tropinone synthesis
He invented the symbol for benzene having a circle in the middle whilst working at St Andrews University in 1923.
He is known for inventing the use of the curly arrow to represent electron movement, and he is also known for discovering the molecular structures of morphine and penicillin.
Robinson annulation has had application in the total synthesis of steroids.
Alongside Edward Charles Dodds, Robinson had also been involved in the orig synthesis of diethylstilboestrol.
In 1957 Robinson founded the journal Tetrahedron with fifty other editors for Pergamon Press.
Publications
The Structural Relationship of Natural Products (1955)
Family
He married twice.
In 1912 he married Gertrude Maud Walsh.
Following her death in 1954, in 1957 he married a widow, Mrs Stern Sylvia Hillstrom (née Hershey).
References
External links
including the Nobel Lecture on December 12, 1947 Some Polycyclic Natural Products
ABC Online Forum
Category:1886 births Category:1975 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester Category:English chemists Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Category:Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Presidents of the Royal Society Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry Category:British Nobel laureates Category:Organic chemists Category:People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal Category:Royal Medal winners Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Category:People educated at Chesterfield Grammar School Category:Faraday Lecturers Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Category:Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Category:
Members of the French Academy of Sciences Category:Waynflete Professors of Chemistry Category:Place of birth missing Category:People educated at Fulneck School Category:English Nobel laureates Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
