Apr 11, 2008

Robert Burns Woodward

Great Thinker Datebook: April 10.

Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 - July 8, 1979), was an American chemist born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of an English father and Scottish mother.

He became professor Harvard and was a Nobel laureate, awarded a Nobel Prize in 1965 in recognition of his synthesis of a number of complex organic substances including cholesterol, cortisone, strychnine, reserpine, chlorophyll, lysergic acid, and some others.

Robert Woodward worked closely with Roald Hoffman on theoretical studies of chemical reactions. His contributions are significant especially in the area of organic chemistry.