|
|
|birth_place = Cathcart, Glasgow
|death_date =
|death_place = Oakington, Cambridgeshire
|nationality = Scottish
|fields = Chemistry, Biochemistry
|workplaces = Lister Institute
University of Edinburgh
University of London
University of Manchester
University of Cambridge
University of Strathclyde
Hatfield Polytechnic
|alma_mater = University of Glasgow
University of Frankfurt am Main
University of Oxford
|doctoral_advisor = Walter Barsche, Sir Robert Robinson
|prizes = Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1957
}}
Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd, OM, PPRS, FRSE (2 October 1907 – 10 January 1997) was a Scottish biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Todd was born near Glasgow, attended Allan Glen's School and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a B.Sc. in 1928. He received a Ph.D (Dr.rer.nat.) from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main in 1931 for his thesis on the chemistry of the bile acids. After studying at Oriel College, Oxford he gained another doctorate in (1933) and held posts with the Lister Institute, the University of Edinburgh and the University of London, where he was appointed Reader in Biochemistry.
Todd became the Sir Samuel Hall Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratories of the University of Manchester in 1938, where he began working on nucleosides, compounds that form the structural units of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). In 1944 he was appointed to the 1702 Chair of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge, which he held until his retirement in 1971, after a heart attack.
In 1955 he elucidated the structure of vitamin B12, later working on the structure and synthesis of vitamin B1 and vitamin E, the anthocyanins (the pigments of flowers and fruits) from insects (aphids, beetles) and studied alkaloids found in hashish and marijuana. He served as chairman of the British government's advisory committee on scientific policy from 1952 to 1964.
He was elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1944 and was Master from 1963 to 1978. He became Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in 1975, and a visiting professor at Hatfield Polytechnic (1978-1986). Among his many honours, including over 40 honorary degrees, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1942, was President of the Royal Society from 1975 to 1980 and became a member of the Royal Order of Merit in 1977.
He was knighted as Sir Alexander Todd in 1954 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Todd of Trumpington in the County of Cambridgeshire in 1962.
Lord Todd was married to Alison Sarah, daughter of Nobel Prize winner Sir Henry Dale, and had a son, Alexander Henry, and two daughters, Helen Jean and Hilary Alison.
Nores
References, Chapter 9: Alexander Todd
: "The Era of Todd, Plumb and Snow", by Sir David Cannadine.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-todd-1283405.html Obituary] in the Independent
[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/15/world/lord-todd-89-a-nobelist-for-work-on-nucleic-acids.html Obituary] in the New York Times
External links [http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1957/todd-bio.html Nobel Foundation biography]
[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1957/todd-lecture.html Synthesis in the Study of Nucleotides], Todd's Nobel lecture
Category:1907 births
Category:1997 deaths
Category:20th-century Scottish people
Category:Academics of the University of Hertfordshire
Category:Academics of the University of London
Category:Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
Category:Alumni of Allan Glen's School
Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Category:British Nobel laureates
Category:Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge
Category:Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Life peers
Category:Members of the Order of Merit
Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry
Category:People associated with the University of Strathclyde
Category:People from Glasgow
Category:Presidents of the Royal Society
Category:Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Category:Scottish biochemists
Category:Scottish biologists
Category:Scottish chemists
Category:Scottish Nobel laureates
Category:Royal Medal winners
Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal
Category:Knights Bachelor
ar:ألكسندر تود
ca:Alexander Robertus Todd
de:Alexander Robertus Todd
es:Alexander Robert Todd
fr:Alexander Robert Todd
io:Alexander Todd
id:Alexander Todd
it:Alexander Todd
sw:Alexander Todd
la:Alexander Robertus Todd
nl:Alexander Todd
ja:アレクサンダー・トッド
oc:Alexander R. Todd
pl:Alexander R. Todd
pt:Alexander Todd
ro:Alexander Todd
ru:Тодд, Александер Роберт
fi:Alexander R. Todd
sv:Alexander Robertus Todd
zh:亚历山大·R·托德，托德男爵
|
|
|