Robert Woodward

1917 (age 62)

Boston, Massachussets

Woodward was dropped from MIT at the close of the fall 1934 semester. Routine and certain kinds of discipline were never his forte. Woodward experimented in his own laboratory, he could spend as little time as he desired in formal classes, he had to take final examinations, and he had to satisfy the physical education requirement. We are convinced that he will make a distinguished name for himself in the scientific world. " Consequently, Woodward resigned this fellowship in January 1941 to become an instructor in the department of chemistry at Harvard. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1944, associate professor in 1946, and full professor in 1950. He occupied this position, which freed him from all formal teaching responsibilities, until he died. These rules related ultraviolet absorbance bands to the structure of certain unsaturated ketones. On the heels of Woodward's rules came the synthesis of quinotoxine in collaboration with William von Eggers Doering in 1944. The goal was quinine, and it was generally agreed that the synthesis of this compound would require the production of quinotoxine, which, the German chemist Paul Rabe reported in 1918, could be turned into quinine. Woodward had turned twenty-six just one day prior to the completion of this synthesis. He correctly postulated the structure for this antibiotic in that same year. Woodward solved or contributed to the elucidation of the structures of many complex chemical compounds. One of note resulted from work performed in collaboration with Geoffrey Wilkinson and reported in 1952 on an iron "sandwich" compound of unique structure, ferrocene. Woodward formulated the Octant Rule in 1961. He utilized the instrumental technique of optical rotatory dispersion to describe the molecular geometry of certain ketones. And in 1965, as a consequence of work involved in the synthesis of vitamin B12, the Woodward-Hoffman Rules were announced. In 1964, Woodward received a National Medal of Science, and in 1965 he was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. The Woodward-Hoffman Rules earned the Nobel Prize in chemistry for Roald Hoffman in 1981. Had Woodward not died in 1979, it is probable that he would also have shared in this award. This last, begun in 1960, was an international collaboration between Woodward and his students at Harvard and Albert Eschenmoser and his students at the Eidgen"ssische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. The synthesis of the antibiotic erythromycin A in 1980 was Woodward's last. It was a ten-year effort and completed after his death by his Harvard group under the direction of Yoshito Kishi, a once visiting professor at Harvard. In 1963, CIBA-Geigy created the Woodward Research Institute at the company's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. The first project was the total synthesis of the natural antibiotic cephalosporin C, which became the topic of Woodward's Nobel lecture. The institute was closed after Woodward's death. Noted for lecturing flawlessly without text or notes, Woodward spent many hours preparing his "theatrical performance. " His public lectures always had the same title, "Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Natural Products. " His blue suit and light blue tie were constant and legendary. He claimed never to have slept for more than three or four hours per night. For excellent biographies, see Alexander Todd and John Cornforth, "Robert Burns Woodward, " Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 27 (1981); and Mary Ellen Bowden and Theodor Benfey, Robert Burns Woodward and the Art of Organic Synthesis (1992), for which the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry provides a traveling exhibit as a complement. An obituary is in the New York Times, July 10, 1979. ]

Robert Burns Woodward

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Background

His father died in October 1918, during the great influenza epidemic.

Education

Woodward later claimed that by the age of twelve he had performed essentially all the experiments in Ludwig Gattermann's Practical Methods of Organic Chemistry, a then widely used college textbook.

Woodward received his elementary and high school education in the public schools of Quincy, the Boston suburb where he lived.

He graduated from high school in 1933 and that fall, at the age of sixteen, enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study chemistry.

In 1937, James Flack Norris, professor of chemistry and director of the organic chemistry research laboratory at MIT, said of Woodward, "When he entered the Institute as a freshman he already had as much knowledge of organic chemistry as a man normally acquires during four years of enrollment in undergraduate classes. "

Woodward also forgot about the requirement for physical education, which became his undoing.

Woodward received the B. S. degree in June 1936 and the Ph. D. degree, at age twenty, in June 1937.

The Boston Globe of June 8, 1937, reported the following remarks from an interview with Norris upon Woodward's graduation: "We did for Woodward what we have done for no other student in our department, for we had no student like him in the department.

Upon receiving his Ph. D. degree, Woodward became an instructor in chemistry at the University of Illinois for the summer of 1937.

Career

Woodward was dropped from MIT at the close of the fall 1934 semester.

Routine and certain kinds of discipline were never his forte.

Woodward experimented in his own laboratory, he could spend as little time as he desired in formal classes, he had to take final examinations, and he had to satisfy the physical education requirement.

We are convinced that he will make a distinguished name for himself in the scientific world. "

Consequently, Woodward resigned this fellowship in January 1941 to become an instructor in the department of chemistry at Harvard.

He was promoted to assistant professor in 1944, associate professor in 1946, and full professor in 1950.

He occupied this position, which freed him from all formal teaching responsibilities, until he died.

These rules related ultraviolet absorbance bands to the structure of certain unsaturated ketones.

On the heels of Woodward's rules came the synthesis of quinotoxine in collaboration with William von Eggers Doering in 1944.

The goal was quinine, and it was generally agreed that the synthesis of this compound would require the production of quinotoxine, which, the German chemist Paul Rabe reported in 1918, could be turned into quinine.

Woodward had turned twenty-six just one day prior to the completion of this synthesis.

He correctly postulated the structure for this antibiotic in that same year.

Woodward solved or contributed to the elucidation of the structures of many complex chemical compounds.

One of note resulted from work performed in collaboration with Geoffrey Wilkinson and reported in 1952 on an iron "sandwich" compound of unique structure, ferrocene.

Woodward formulated the Octant Rule in 1961.

He utilized the instrumental technique of optical rotatory dispersion to describe the molecular geometry of certain ketones.

And in 1965, as a consequence of work involved in the synthesis of vitamin B12, the Woodward-Hoffman Rules were announced.

In 1964, Woodward received a National Medal of Science, and in 1965 he was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The Woodward-Hoffman Rules earned the Nobel Prize in chemistry for Roald Hoffman in 1981.

Had Woodward not died in 1979, it is probable that he would also have shared in this award.

This last, begun in 1960, was an international collaboration between Woodward and his students at Harvard and Albert Eschenmoser and his students at the Eidgen"ssische Technische Hochschule in Zurich.

The synthesis of the antibiotic erythromycin A in 1980 was Woodward's last.

It was a ten-year effort and completed after his death by his Harvard group under the direction of Yoshito Kishi, a once visiting professor at Harvard.

In 1963, CIBA-Geigy created the Woodward Research Institute at the company's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

The first project was the total synthesis of the natural antibiotic cephalosporin C, which became the topic of Woodward's Nobel lecture.

The institute was closed after Woodward's death.

Noted for lecturing flawlessly without text or notes, Woodward spent many hours preparing his "theatrical performance. "

His public lectures always had the same title, "Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Natural Products. "

His blue suit and light blue tie were constant and legendary.

He claimed never to have slept for more than three or four hours per night.

For excellent biographies, see Alexander Todd and John Cornforth, "Robert Burns Woodward, " Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 27 (1981); and Mary Ellen Bowden and Theodor Benfey, Robert Burns Woodward and the Art of Organic Synthesis (1992), for which the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry provides a traveling exhibit as a complement.

An obituary is in the New York Times, July 10, 1979. ]

Religion

In September 1938, Woodward became a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard.

While a member of the society, Woodward planned the syntheses of many complex natural products.

Connections

Woodward's mother, an accountant and realtor, was of Scottish ancestry; on the basis of the name, Woodward claimed a relationship to Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.

Margaret Woodward soon remarried, but she and her young son were abandoned by her second husband.

child:: ,
divorced:: Eudoxia
divorced:: Irja
married:: Eudoxia
married:: Irja
children:: Eudoxia
children:: Irja

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