Derek Barton

@Chemists, Birthday and Childhood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton was an English chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1969 British Imperial College London Scientists Chemists Organic Chemists Virgo Celebrities Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton was an English chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the groundwork he laid for the determination of the three-dimensional shape of organic compounds. He shared the prize with a Norwegian chemist named Odd Hassel. Barton had a breakthrough while studying ‘conformational analysis’ or the ‘geometries of a molecule and its associated energies’ in 1950 when he suggested that the reaction rates of isomers were affected by the orientations of functional groups in space. Barton was one of the brilliant chemists at the heart of the movement that brought in a revolution in field of organic chemistry during the period 1940-1970. He did not restrict himself to any specialization in one field of chemistry but moved into other areas of the subject as well. He was gifted with the ability to draw out the general implications from the work of other chemists and bridged the boundaries of different fields of chemistry. He had the confidence to use his intuition instead of deductive logic in suggesting lines of reasoning which had remained incomplete until then. He carried out research on the oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons and on the way oxyradicals behaved. He developed an easier way to synthesize the hormone ‘aldosterone’ which was required for the treatment of Addison’s disease.

Personal Details

Birthday: September 8, 1918 Died on: March 16, 1998 Nationality: British Famous: Imperial College London, Scientists, Chemists, Organic Chemists Spouses: Christiane Cognet, Jeanne Kate Wilkins, Judith Cobb Known as: Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton Universities: Imperial College London Imperial College London Information Detail Birthday September 8, 1918 Died on March 16, 1998 Nationality British Famous Imperial College London, Scientists, Chemists, Organic Chemists Spouses Christiane Cognet, Jeanne Kate Wilkins, Judith Cobb Known as Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton Universities Imperial College London Imperial College London Notable Alumnis Imperial College London Birth Place Gravesend, Kent, England Gender Male Father William Thomas Barton Mother Maude Henrietta Lukes Sun Sign Virgo Born in Gravesend, Kent, England Famous as Chemist Died at Age 79

Gravesend, Kent, England

Derek Barton born at Unsplash Birth Place

He married Jeanne Kate Wilkins, a clerk, on December 20, 1944, and divorced her in early 1960s. He had a son, William Godfrey Lukes Barton from the marriage. Unsplash Personal Life

In 1969 he married Christiane Cognet who died of ovarian cancer in 1992. Unsplash Personal Life

After Christiane’s death Barton married Judith Cobb in 1993. Unsplash Personal Life

Derek Barton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England on September 8, 1918. His father was a carpenter named William Thomas Barton and his mother was Maude Henrietta Lukes. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He studied at the ‘Gravesend Grammar School’ from 1926 to 1929, the ‘King School, Rochester’ from 1929 to 1932 and at the ‘Tonbridge School, Kent’ from 1932 to 1935. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He enrolled for one year at the local ‘Gillingham Technical College’ in Gillingham, England to prepare himself to study chemistry. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He joined the ‘Imperial College, London’ in 1938 from where he received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 1940. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He received a research fellowship from the Guiness Research, Distilleries Co. Ltd. and worked for his PhD from 1940 to 1942. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Derek Barton was asked to join the armed forces to fight in the Second World War after he had completed his PhD. But as he was declared unfit for regular military service because of a weak heart, he joined the Military intelligence instead. Unsplash Career

During his stint in the Military Intelligence he spent two years in the development of an invisible ink that could not be detected by iodine spray. Unsplash Career

He taught chemistry at the ‘Imperial College, London’ from 1945 to 1946 after leaving MI post the war. Unsplash Career

In 1946 he joined Albright & Wilson’s ‘Imperial Chemical Industries’, a major phosphorous producer, at Oldbury factory in the English Midlands and worked on ‘organophosphorous chemistry’ till 1947. Unsplash Career

He returned to the Imperial College, London’ in 1947 as a teaching assistant and devoted himself to steroid chemistry. Unsplash Career

Derek Barton collaborated with W. D. Ollis for the book ‘Comprehensive Organic Chemistry’ published in 1979. Unsplash Major Works

His book ‘Some Recollections of Gap Jumping’ was published in 1991. Unsplash Major Works

The book ‘Half a Century of Free Radical Chemistry’ was published in 1993 while the book ‘Reason and Imagination: Reflections of Research in Organic Chemistry’ was published in 1996. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	September 8, 1918
Died on	March 16, 1998
Nationality	British
Famous	Imperial College London, Scientists, Chemists, Organic Chemists
Spouses	Christiane Cognet, Jeanne Kate Wilkins, Judith Cobb
Known as	Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton
Universities	Imperial College London Imperial College London
Notable Alumnis	Imperial College London
Birth Place	Gravesend, Kent, England
Gender	Male
Father	William Thomas Barton
Mother	Maude Henrietta Lukes
Sun Sign	Virgo
Born in	Gravesend, Kent, England
Famous as	Chemist
Died at Age	79

Derek Barton

British

Sep 8, 1918

Biography

Personal Details

Gravesend, Kent, England