Biographies of nobel chemists

Nobel laureate contributions to 20th century chemistry

David Rogers

Cambridge: RSC 2006 | Pp668 | £99.95 | ISBN 0 854 04356 X

Nobel prizes in chemistry have been awarded since 1901, so it is highly appropriate that David Rogers should produce potted biographies of all the recipients during the past century.  

Each winner gets about four pages of text, irrespective of how history has dealt with the laureate's contribution to chemistry. Page-wise, Theodore William Richards (1914, for the 'accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of elements') is equal to Robert Burns Woodward (1965, for 'outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis') and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1966, for 'her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances'). 

Each of the entries follows the same pattern. Part of the Nobel citation is bracketed with a few personal details, eg date of marriage, number, sex and names of offspring and sometimes even the careers they followed. Then there is a short paragraph on the early years of the recipient - colleges attended and influences that made the laureate choose chemistry for lifelong study. The 'Career' section presents a tabulated chronology of the various posts the laureates occupied and summaries, mainly taken from the award-winners' acceptance speeches, of their major activities that earned them their prizes. A section listing awards and honours follows and finally a short bibliography for those who want to seek further information.