Background
Woollins grew up in Cleethorpes, the second youngest of four sons.
Woollins grew up in Cleethorpes, the second youngest of four sons.
He was educated at Clee Grammar School for Boys and the University of East Anglia (Bachelor of Science, 1976. Doctor of Philosophy, 1979) and has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 1994 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2002. He was educated at Clee Grammar School for Boys, where he attended the sixth form.
After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of East Anglia in 1976, he complete a Doctor of Philosophy in 1979.
Woollins" reagent is named after him. Prior to being appointed Vice Principal of Research, Woollins was the Head of Chemistry for two terms. He has been a visiting Professor at various institutes.
He did postdoc work under William R Cullen at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, before working with Barnett Rosenberg in Michigan.
His work with Rosenberg included work on Cisplatin, an early chemotherapy drug. He came up with a procedure to verify the concentration of transplatin, a harmful isomer, was less than 1ppm.
He returned to the United Kingdom where he worked under Norman Greenwood at the University of Leeds before becoming a lecturer at Imperial College London. He became a Professor at Loughborough University prior to joining the University of Street Andrews.
Woollins has been a visiting Professor at Australian National University, University of Auckland and most recently Nanjing University of Technology.
Initially Woollins was Head of Research of the School of Chemistry at Street.Andrews University, before two successful terms as Head of Chemistry. After this he was appointed Vice Principal of Research, the post he currently holds. Professor Derek Woollins is known for his work on the synthesis, determination of structure and applications of new molecules made with main group elements of the Periodic Table, where his work has focused on Sulfur, Selenium and Tellurium.
He has also done work on Nitrogen and Phosphorus.
His work on sulfur-nitrogen rings and cages, as well as selenium and tellurium chemistry, has led to development of new molecular devices including precursors to new single source II-VI semiconductors. His development of imidophosphinate ligands has given rise to new extractants of metals in large scale industrial processes.
Work on phosphorus-selenium chemistry resulted in Woollins" reagent that has been manufactured on a commercial scale for use in organic synthesis. Professor Woollins recently demonstrated the catalytic removal of hydrogen sulfide from natural gas is of considerable industrial and environmental significance, and has done a range of work on molecular scaffolding.
Woollins has received various awards for his work. In 1990 he was awarded the Sir Edward Franklin award by the Royal Society of Chemistry for his work on Organometallic chemistry. In 1997 the Royal Society of Chemistry again recognized Woollins" contribution by awarding him the Main Group Metals medal, for his contributions to Sulfur Chemistry.
