Sir Robert Robinson

Sir Robert Robinson (1886-1975), British chemist and Nobel Prize winner. The primary focus of Robinson's work was on alkaloids—complex natural compounds that contain nitrogen and often exhibit high degrees of biological activity. He studied many aspects of organic chemistry, including the study of plant pigments. He also worked with steroid hormones and was able to synthesize estrogens. Robinson was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with the chemical structures of alkaloids.

He was born near Chesterfield, England, and received his B.A. degree (1905) in chemistry, and a doctorate of science in chemistry in 1910 at Manchester University in England. During World War II (1939-1945), Robinson worked on research efforts that were war-related, studying explosives, antimalarial drugs, and penicillin. Robinson taught at Oxford until his retirement in 1955. His keen interest in organic chemistry eventually led to his conviction that plants synthesize chemicals in certain ways. To the prevailing thoughts about chemical theory he added certain concepts about electron distribution and the resulting chemical reactivity of certain aromatic compounds, such as benzene. But it was in the area of alkaloids that Robinson's work centered. Alkaloids—for example, cocaine, morphine, and opium, as well as certain natural poisons—exert profound biochemical changes on living things. Robinson was able to define the structure of morphine and strychnine; he also was able to synthesize such alkaloids as narcotine and tropinone.