Derek Barton

English chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

Born: September 8, 1918 · Died: March 16, 1998

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Who was Derek Barton?

Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton (8 September 1918 – 16 March 1998) was an English organic chemist and Nobel Prize laureate for 1969. Barton was born in Gravesend, Kent, to William Thomas and Maude Henrietta Barton (née Lukes). He attended Gravesend Grammar School (1926–29), The King's School, Rochester (1929–32), Tonbridge School (1932–35) and Medway Technical College (1937–39). In 1938 he entered Imperial College London, where he graduated in 1940 and obtained his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry in 1942. He then became Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry of Imperial College, and from 1946 to 1949 he was ICI Research Fellow.

Historical significance

During 1949 and 1950, he was a visiting lecturer in natural products chemistry at Harvard University, and was then appointed reader in organic chemistry and, in 1953, professor at Birkbeck College. From 1942 to 1944, Barton was a government research chemist, then from 1944 to 1945 he worked for Albright and Wilson in Birmingham.

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