Richard Norman (chemist)

Sir Richard Oswald Chandler Norman (27 April 1932 – 6 June 1993) was a British chemist.^[1]

Biography

Norman was born in Norbury, London. His father Oswald managed a bank in the area. Norman received his primary education at St Paul's School, London. He matriculated in chemistry from Balliol College, Oxford (1951), and pursued a Ph.D at Merton College, Oxford. His doctoral thesis investigated using continuous flow mixing techniques to study rapid free radical reactions. He joined the faculty at Merton College in 1958, lecturing, tutoring and building up a research team.

In 1965 Norman moved to the University of York to create a new chemistry department, where he gained a reputation for the study of organic reactions. In 1987 he returned to Oxford as Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, where he remained until his death.

He married Jennifer Margaret Tope in 1982. They had no children. He died in Oxford in 1993; his body was cremated at Oxford.

Publications

• Electrophilic Substitution in Benzenoid Compounds (with Roger Taylor) (published 1964)
• Principles of Organic Synthesis (published 1968)
• Modern Organic Chemistry (with David J. Waddington) (published 1972)

Recognitions, honours, awards

• President of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (1978-1980)
• President of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1984-1986)
• Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1977)
• Knighted (Knight of the British Empire) (1987)
• Named as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence (1983-1988)
• Meldola Medal and Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry (1961)
• Corday–Morgan Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry (1967)

References

1. Steward, W. B. (12 June 1993). "Obituary:Sir Richard Norman". The Independent (London). Retrieved 21 June 2012.

• Hughes, D.E.P. "Norman, Sir Richard Oswald Chandler (1932–1993), chemist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Waddington, D. (1997). "Sir Richard Oswald Chandler Norman, K.B.E. 27 April 1932--6 June 1993: Elected ER.S. 1977". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 43: 335. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1997.0019.