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ARTHUR BIRCH LECTURES

[   2007 Birch Lecture   |   Craig Visiting Professorship   |   2008 Craig Lecture  ]

THE ARTHUR BIRCH LECTURES

photo of Arthur Birch  

The Award was established in 1981 in memory of Arthur J Birch, MSc (Sydney & Manchester) DPhil (Oxon), FRIC, FRACI, FAA, FRS, and to pay tribute to his contributions to the founding of the Research School from its founding in 1968. The Birch (and Craig) lectures are highlights in the School's calendar year.

The aim of the award of "Birch Lecturer" is to provide an attractive mechanism for inviting eminent chemists who are of interest to research groups within the School to spend time with these researchers and play an interactive role in discussions.

The standing of Birch Lecturers is that of eminent chemists at the peak of his/her international career. The accompanying list of former lecturers is testament to the superb quality of honoraries that have visited the Research School, nine of whom are Nobel Laureates.

The program for the Birch Lecturer will normally include the Birch Lecture (suitable for a general chemistry audience), one or two more specialised research seminars, the Birch Dinner, and occasionally an Academy Lecture (suitable for a wider audience that may include government decision makers). The award is normally allocated on an annual basis and the Birch Lecturer will normally spend about one week in the School.

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FORMER BIRCH LECTURERS

1981         Professor A Eschenmoser 16 February 1981    
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich
Organic Synthesis and the Origin of Natural Products
 
1982Professor J A Pople*1998 11 February 1982
Carnegie-Mellon University
Obital Theory, Structure and Reactivity
 
1983 Professor Henry Taube*1983 21 October 1983
Stanford University
Back Bonding as it Affects Reactivity
 
1984 Professor Elias J Corey*1990 30 July 1984
Harvard University
Total Synthesis of Biologically Active Molecules
 
1985 Professor Rudolph A Marcus*1992 2 October 1985
California Institute of Technology
Electron Transfer Reactions: Theory and Experiment
 
1986 Professor Roald Hoffmann*1981 21 January 1986
Building Bridges between Organic and Inorganic Chemistry
 
1987 Professor Gilbert Stork 11 March 1987
Columbia University, New York
Radical Cyclisation in Natural Product Synthesis
 
1988 No lecture  
 
1989 Professor J D Dunitz 1 May 1989
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich
Chemical Reaction Paths from Crystal Structure Data
 
1990 Professor Ryoji Noyori*2001 1 May 1990
Nagoya University
Asymmetric Catalysis: Science and Opportunities
 
1991 Professor Jeremy Knowles 5 February 1991
Harvard University
Enzyme Catalysists: Not Different, Just Better
 
1992 Professor Sir John M Thomas FRS 25 March 1992
Formerly Director, Royal Institution London, Deputy Pro Chancellor, University of Wales
New Catalysts for a Clean Environment
 
1993 Professor Alex Pines 24 June 1993
University of California and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Some Magnetic Moments
 
1994 Professor John S Rowlinson 10 May 1994
Oxford University, UK
Entropy and Information
 
1995 Professor Robert G Bergman 29 May 1995
University of California, Berkeley
Activation of Hydrocarbons with Transition Metal Compounds
 
1996 Professor Jean-Marie Lehn*1987 1 May 1996
Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg and College de France, Paris
Supramolecular Chemistry: Concepts and Perspectives
 
1997 Professor Peter Day 29 July 1997
The Royal Institution of Great Britain
What is a Material?
 
1998 Professor Arthur Kornberg*1959 17 March 1998
Stanford University School of Medicine
Science and Medicine at the Millennium
 
1999 Professor Hubert Schmidbaur 11 February 1999
Technische Universität München
Gold Chemistry: From Alchemy to Relativity and Back
 
2000 Professor David A Evans 1 May 2000
Harvard University
Asymmetric Catalysis with Chiral metal Complexes
 
2002 Professor Peter G Schultz 1 May 2002
Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla
Expanding the Genetic Code
 
2003 Professor Sir Harry Kroto*1999 26 November 2003
University of Sussex
2010, a NanoSpace Odyssey
 
2004 Professor Robert H Grubbs 8th September 2004
Victor & Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry, Caltech
Ruthenium-based Catalysts for Olefin Metathesis
 
2005 Professor Roger Tsien 13 September 2005
University of California, San Diego
Building and breeding molecules to spy on cells and tumors
 
2006 Professor Michael Graetzel 7 August 2006
Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Switzerland
Light and Energy, Mimicking Natural Photosynthesis
 
2007 Professor Richard R. Schrock  
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Discovery and Development of Alkene and Alkyne Metathesis Reactions
 
2008 Professor Thomas A. Steitz  
Yale University,
Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology
The structural basis of the function of the ribosome and its large subunit, a major antibiotic target
 
2009 Professor Daniel G. Nocera 15 April 2009
Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Powering the Planet: The Challenge for Science in the 21st Century
 
2013 Professor Dan Shechtman*2011 11 February 2013
Technion, Haifa, Israel
The Discovery of Quasi-periodic Materials. A Paradigm Change in Crystallography
 
2014 Professor Dame Carol Robinson 8 August 2014
University of Oxford
Membranes, micelles and motors - maintaining the momentum
 
2015 Professor Samir Zard 2 June 2015
Ecole Polytechnique
Fun with Radicals. A Matter of Lifetime
 
2017 Professor Christopher Dobson FRS 16 November 2017
University of Cambridge
The Amyloid State of Proteins and its Significance in Biology and Medicine
 
2018 Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski 31 October 2018
Carnegie Mellon University
Macromolecular Engineering by Taming Free Radicals
 
2019 Professor Frances Arnold*2018 15 February 2019
California Institute of Technology
Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life



      * Nobel Laureate


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