Photo credit: Unknown author — File:Robert Robinson organic chemist.jpg (Wikimedia Commons) · Public domain
Robert Robinson
1886–1975 · United Kingdom · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1947
British organic chemist who decoded the structures of morphine, strychnine and other alkaloids, and pioneered strategies of organic synthesis.
Nobel Prize work
Robinson studied plant products of biological importance, above all the alkaloids. He established the structures of morphine, strychnine precursors and many tropane alkaloids, developed the biomimetic Robinson tropinone synthesis, and devised the Robinson annulation. His curly-arrow notation also shaped how organic reaction mechanisms are drawn today.
Fields
Related topics
Total synthesis
Total synthesis constructs a complex natural or designed molecule from simple, defined starting materials, integrating route design, selectivity, mechanism, and practical execution.
Alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids
Three large families of natural products arise from different biosynthetic building blocks and show wide structural variety and biological activity.