Background
Van Dorp was born as the son of Hendrik van Dorp and Maria van Dorp, and studied chemistry in Amsterdam where he received a PhD for his thesis Aneurine en gistphosphatase in 1941.
Van Dorp was born as the son of Hendrik van Dorp and Maria van Dorp, and studied chemistry in Amsterdam where he received a PhD for his thesis Aneurine en gistphosphatase in 1941.
In 1946, while employed by the Dutch Organon company in Oss, Van Dorp and Jozef Ferdinand Arens ('Coco') published the synthesis for vitamin A acid in the scientific journal Nature. In 1947, they completed the first full synthesis for the complex compound vitamin A, by taking the final step and turning the acid in an alcohol. Their synthesis was not to be used for commercial production, as an alternative route that was published soon after by Otto Isler and co-workers (Hoffmann-La Roche) turned out to be much more suited for upscaling.
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.