Background
BIRCH, Arthur was born on August 3, 1915 in Sydney, N.S.W. Son of Arthur Spencer and Lily Bailey.
BIRCH, Arthur was born on August 3, 1915 in Sydney, N.S.W. Son of Arthur Spencer and Lily Bailey.
University of Oxford. University of Sydney.
Birch developed the Birch reduction of aromatic rings (by treatment with lithium metal and ammonia) which is widely used in synthetic organic chemistry. The Birch Reduction enables the modification of steroids. This series later comprised the first oral contraceptive pill, which was made by others
The Birch reduction also allows for the development of other steroid drugs and antibiotics - he also made the first simple synthesis of the ring A-B structure of cholesterol.
Birch published over 440 scientific papers and reports. He travelled to Oxford University to undertake his Doctor of Philosophy, graduating in 1940.
The hormone research he became involved with in 1940 was initiated by the Royal Air Force who then believed German fighter pilots were given cortical hormones He remained a research Fellow at Oxford until 1948 working under Sir Robert Robinson, when he became the Smithson Fellow at the University of Cambridge where he remained until 1952. At Cambridge he worked with Lord Todd.
He returned to Australia in 1952 to take up a Professorship in organic chemistry at the University of Sydney, he was made a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954.
He held his position at the University of Sydney until 1955 when he took a similar position at Manchester University. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958. Birch returned to Australia again in 1967 to establish the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra, becoming its founding dean
He remained involved with the school until 1980.
He served as President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute from 1977 to 1978, and also chaired the 1977 Independent Inquiry into Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. He served as President of the Australian Academy of Science from 1982 to 1986. He was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, in 1994.
Before his death in 1995, the Research School of Chemistry building at American National University was named the "Birch Building" in his honour.
Royal Society]
In 1948 Birch published the first total synthesis of a male sex hormone (19-nortestosterone), as the first member of a new structural series. He was also a founding member of the Australian Science and Technology Council.
Married Jessie Williams in 1948.