Research School of Chemistry
ARTHUR BIRCH LECTURES
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Research School of Chemistry
ARTHUR BIRCH LECTURES
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THE ARTHUR BIRCH LECTURES
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. ..oOo..
FORMER BIRCH LECTURERS |
| 1981 | Professor A Eschenmoser | |
| Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich | ||
| Organic Synthesis and the Origin of Natural Products | ||
| 1982 | Professor 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