College chemistry Nobel laureates honoured with presentation of plaques

Chemical landmark plaques presented to Imperial for alumni's contributions to science<em> - News </em>

By Danielle Reeves
Thursday 3 May 2007

Two alumni of Imperial College London are honoured today with Royal Society of Chemistry National Chemical Landmark plaques, presented to the College in recognition of the Nobel Prizes they won.

Professor Sir Derek Barton FRS (1918 – 1998) and Professor Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson FRS (1921 – 1996) both started their scientific careers as undergraduate students at Imperial's chemistry department, and both returned to the College at later stages in their careers as professorial staff. The plaques presented to the College by the Royal Society of Chemistry mark the scientists' contributions to their field, and detail the work for which they received their Nobel prizes. They will be mounted outside the recently-refurbished entrance of Imperial's Department of Chemistry.

The Chemical Landmark Plaques are being presented to Imperial's Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, by the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Professor Jim Feast, at a special ceremony this evening. The presentation will be preceded by an overview of Professors Barton's and Wilkinson's work by Dr Hannah Gay, senior research investigator at Imperial's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. In addition, Professor Willie Motherwell from UCL and Professor Malcolm Green from Oxford, will talk about the Nobel Laureates' important contribution to their areas of chemistry, and will share anecdotes about their colourful lives.

Geoffrey Wilkinson won a royal scholarship to study chemistry at Imperial in 1939, completing a bachelor's degree, and then a PhD on war research with phosgene gas. In 1943 he was recruited to the atomic bomb project in Canada, and when the war ended he sought a route out of atomic chemistry, taking an assistant professorship at Harvard, working on organo-metallic compounds. At Harvard in 1951 he and a colleague identified the structure of the organometallic 'sandwich' compound ferrocene, in which an iron atom lies between two parallel organic rings. It was for this work, which led to the development of catalytic converters for car exhausts, that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973.

Professor Wilkinson moved back to the UK in 1956 to take up the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial. He was knighted in 1976 but remained a vocal critic of successive British prime ministers, education ministers and university vice-chancellors for not supporting science sufficiently.

Derek Barton applied to Imperial in 1938 and studied a Bachelor's degree followed by a PhD in the chemistry department. His work whilst at the College included military intelligence research, during which time he developed invisible inks for intelligence personnel to use in the field. During the late 1940s he published a paper entitled 'the conformation of the steroid nucleus', which gave rise to a new branch of chemistry – conformation analysis. This new area redirected scientists' thinking on the behaviour of complex organic molecules and it was for his contribution to the development of this field that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969.

Rather than face retirement in the UK at the age of 65, Professor Barton moved to Paris where he worked at CNRS, and then to the Texas A&M University, where he worked until the day of his death at the age of 80, in 1998.

Professor Richard Templer , head of the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: "I'm delighted that the RSC have chosen to commemorate the significant contribution these two College alumni made to chemistry, with National Chemical Landmark plaques. Our department is very proud of the cutting edge work carried out by our staff in the past, as well as today, and these plaques are testament to the highest achievement of two of our former colleagues."

Chemical Landmarks are the Royal Society of Chemistry's official recognition of historical sites around the UK where important chemical breakthroughs have been made. They are an RSC initiative to commemorate, emphasise and awaken public interest in historic developments in the chemical sciences.

Sites that are awarded Chemical Landmark status have either played a major part in the development of chemical science or have seen a development of chemical science that has made a significant contribution to the health, wealth or quality of life of the nation.

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Watch an interview with Professor Wilkinson filmed in 1985 when he was Head of Imperial's Department of Chemistry (Real Player)

For more information please contact:

Danielle Reeves, Imperial College London press office,
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 2198
Mob: +44 (0)7803 886248
Email: Danielle.reeves@imperial.ac.uk

Brian Emsley, Royal Society of Chemistry press office
Tel: 0207 440 3317
Mob: 07966 939257
Email: emsleyb@rsc.org

Notes to editors:

1. About the Chemical Landmark scheme

In 1997, the Royal Society of Chemistry collaborated with the American Chemical Society (ACS) in a series of International Chemical Landmarks to recognise sites where important work or discoveries in the chemical sciences had taken place, honour them with a plaque and presentation ceremony, and bring them to the attention of the public and the media.

Following the success of these events, the RSC initiated its own National Chemical Landmarks programme in 2001 to dedicate National Landmarks in the chemical sciences. These nominations are either made via the RSC Local Section where the site is located or by other RSC members or member groups and then submitted for approval. Only three or four Landmarks are awarded each year. The two Chemical Landmark plaques unveiled at Imperial College London today make a total of 19 plaques that have been awarded.

2. About Imperial College London

Rated as the world's ninth best university in the 2006 Times Higher Education Supplement University Rankings, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 11,500 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality.

Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

With 62 Fellows of the Royal Society among our current academic staff and distinguished past members of the College including 14 Nobel Laureates and two Fields Medallists, Imperial's contribution to society has been immense. Inventions and innovations include the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of our research for the benefit of all continues today with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle climate change and mathematical modelling to predict and control the spread of infectious diseases.

The College's 100 years of living science will be celebrated throughout 2007 with a range of events to mark the Centenary of the signing of Imperial's founding charter on 8 July 1907.

Web site: www.imperial.ac.uk

3. About the Royal Society of Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the UK Professional Bo dy for chemical scientists and an international Learned Society for the chemical sciences with some 43,000 members worldwide. It is a major international publisher of chemical information, supports the teaching of chemical sciences at all levels and is a leader in bringing science to the public.