Robert Burns WoodwardBorn 10 Apr 1917; died 8 Jul 1979 at age 62. American chemist who is bestknownfor his syntheses of complex organic substances, including quinine, the well-known antimalarial (1944), the steroids cholesterol and cortisone (1951), and vitamin B12 (1971). He also synthesized lanosterol, the famous poison strychnine and reserpine. Several other examples from the chemistry of the alkaloids are lysergic acid, ergonovine, ellipticine, colhicine. In the field of antibiotics Woodward established the structure of aureomycin and terramycin. He has also synthesized chlorophyll, the green plant pigment. He established the structure of many compounds, for instance the peculiar fish poison tetrodotoxin, causing numerous fatalities in Japan. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965. |
