Biography of Robert Burns Woodward

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Biography of Robert Burns Woodward

Robert Burns Woodward was born in Boston on April 10th, 1917, the only child

of Margaret and Arthur Woodward, of English antecedents. Robert's father Arthur died in

October of 1918, at an early age of only thirty-three years old.

Robert Woodward was attracted to chemistry at a very early age, and indulged his

taste for the science in private activities throughout the period of his primary and

secondary education in the public schools of Quincy, a suburb of Boston. In 1933, he

entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which they excluded him because

of inattention to formal studies at the end of the Fall term in 1934. The Institute

authorities generously allowed him to re-enroll in the Fall term of 1935, and he took the

degrees of Bachelor of Science in 1936 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1937. Since that time

he has been associated with Harvard University, as Postdoctoral Fellow (1937-1938),

Member of the Society of Fellows (1938-1940), Instructor in Chemistry (1941-1944),

Assistant Professor (1944-1946), Associate Professor (1946-1950), Professor (1950-

1953), Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry (1953-1960), and Donner Professor of

Science since 1960. After all of these things that he did, it's no wonder why he was on his

way to a Nobel prize in the near future. In 1963 he assumed direction of the Woodward

Research Institute at Basel. In 1965 was when he recieved his Nobel prize for his

outstanding achievments in organic synthesis. His studies brought knowledge to the world

and opened doors for later scientists that were in his field of organic synthesis. He was a

member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966-1971),

and he w...

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...nnection between chemistry and

physics. The work of Ernest Rutherford, H. G. J. Moseley, and Niels Bohr on atomic

structure (see atom) was applied to molecular structures. G. N. Lewis, Irving Langmuir,

and Linus Pauling developed the electronic theory of chemical bonds, directed valency,

and molecular orbitals (see molecular orbital theory). Transmutation of the elements, first

achieved by Rutherford, has led to the creation of elements not found in nature; in work

pioneered by Glenn Seaborg elements heavier than uranium have been produced. With the

rapid development of polymer chemistry after World War II a host of new synthetic fibers

and materials have been added to the market. A fuller understanding of the relation

between the structure of molecules and their properties has allowed chemists to tailor

predictively new materials to meet specific needs.

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