Philippe Barbier

Philippe Antoine Francoise Barbier (2 March 1848 – 18 September 1922) was a French organic chemist. He is best known for his two named reactions in organic synthesis, the Barbier reaction and the Barbier-Wieland degradation, as well as for his role in the creation of organomagnesium reagents with his student, Victor Grignard.

Although Grignard was awarded the Nobel prize in 1912 (along with Sabatier) for his discovery, Barbier and Sabatier’s collaborator, Senderens, were snubbed. Grignard himself decried this as an injustice, writing to a friend just days after returning from his Nobel acceptance: “…to tell the truth, and between us, I would even have preferred to wait a little longer, to see the prize shared between Sabatier and Senderens, and then share it myself with Barbier at a later time”.^[1] Nevertheless, Barbier’s contributions to the scientific community were plentiful and varied, including work in mineralogy, natural products isolation, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.