John Cornforth

John Cornforth
Cornforth in 1975
Born
John Warcup Cornforth Jr.

(1917-09-07)7 September 1917
Died8 December 2013(2013-12-08) (aged 96)
Sussex, England
NationalityAustralian
CitizenshipAustralian
British
Alma mater
Known forStereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions
Cholesterol total synthesis
Cornforth reagent
Cornforth rearrangement
SpouseRita Harradence
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsOrganic chemistry
Institutions
ThesisSynthesis of analogues of steroid hormones (1941)
Doctoral advisorRobert Robinson

Sir John Warcup Cornforth Jr.,[3] AC, CBE, FRS, FAA (7 September 1917 – 8 December 2013) was an Australian–British chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975 for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions,[4][5] becoming the only Nobel laureate born in New South Wales.[2][6][7]

Cornforth investigated enzymes that catalyse changes in organic compounds, the substrates, by taking the place of hydrogen atoms in a substrate's chains and rings. In his syntheses and descriptions of the structure of various terpenes, olefins, and steroids, Cornforth determined specifically which cluster of hydrogen atoms in a substrate were replaced by an enzyme to effect a given change in the substrate, allowing him to detail the biosynthesis of cholesterol.[8] For this work, he won a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975, alongside co-recipient Vladimir Prelog, and was knighted in 1977.[9]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference royal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Battersby, Sir Alan R.; Young, Douglas W. (2015). "Sir John Warcup Cornforth AC CBE. 7 September 1917 – 8 December 2013". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 62: 19–57. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2015.0016. ISSN 0080-4606.
  3. ^ "John Cornforth". NNDB. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  4. ^ Hanson, Jim (2014). "John Cornforth (1917–2013) Nobel-prizewinning chemist who tracked how enzymes build cholesterol". Nature. 506 (7486): 35. Bibcode:2014Natur.506...35H. doi:10.1038/506035a. PMID 24499912.
  5. ^ "Sir John Cornforth". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2012.
  6. ^ Dean, Chris. "John 'Kappa' Cornforth". Vega Science Trust. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  7. ^ Chang, Kenneth (19 December 2013). "John W. Cornforth, 96, Nobel-Winning Chemist, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  8. ^ Deaf Scientist Corner – John Warcup Cornforth, Texas Woman's University
  9. ^ "John Cornforth". Royal Institution of Australia. Archived from the original on 14 January 2014.