Robinson and Organic Chemistry

The second professor, Sir Robert Robinson, was not an Oxford University product, as was Hinshelwood, and apparently had little time for its character. His first ten years from 1930 are described in Chapter 5 but his influence on Oxford chemistry was so considerable that it is necessary to repeat and add to the 

The Structural Relations of Natural Products, gives very concisely his approach to biosynthesis. 

As noted in Chapter 6 very important organic chemistry was done in Robinson s time in other Oxford departments e.g. that on British Anti-Lewisite, penicillin and cephalosporin. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1945 for the work on penicillin in Oxford. In passing we must note the award of the Nobel Prize to two of Robinson s pupils, Todd, mentioned above, and Cornforth in 1975, yet Robinson did not establish a succession of his people in Oxford. In one sense organic chemistry did not need 

Robinson retired in 1955. After he left Oxford he did work with Shell as a consultant. He died in 1975. In 1955 Oxford elected as his successor E.R.H. Jones, again from Manchester. We shall add here Jones s initial period until 1965 to that of Robinson as only in the years after 1965 was there much impetus behind a new phase in Oxford organic chemistry. By this remark it is clear that at first the style of organic chemistry research, with its concentration on novel synthesis not mechanism, was little modified by the change in professor. There also remained a stressful relationship with colleges that has remained as an undercurrent to today. 

1965 as we shall see in later sections. On the very positive side, however, it was an action of Jones with his inside connections in the Science Research Councils that created a major opportunity and not just for organic chemistry in Oxford. Before we describe this opportunity giving rise to the Enzyme Group we turn to a particular difficulty for Jones. 

---