Abstract
ON the Recommendation of the Council of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Society of Macca-bæans nas awarded the Meldola Medal for 1948 to Dr. Ralph Alexander Raphael, in recognition of the contributions he has made to the investigation of new methods of approach to the synthesis of natural compounds. Dr. Raphael graduated in 1941 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology with first-class honours in chemistry, and in 1943 was awarded a Ph.D. for work on acetylenic compounds. During 1943–46 he was head of one of the chemotherapeutic research departments of Messrs. May and Baker, Ltd., and was mainly concerned with penicillin chemistry. He was then awarded an Imperial Chemical Industries fellowship and resumed research work at the Imperial College on the investigation of the potentialities of acetylenic compounds in the synthesis of natural products. In 1947 this work resulted in the total synthesis of the penicillic acid, thus proving its structure beyond doubt. Attention was then turned to the utilization of the peculiar properties of acetylenic compounds to accomplish the synthesis of carbohydrates and their derivatives, and, up to the present, arabitol, ribitol, erythritol, threitol and erythrulose have been obtained. A study is also being made of methods of producing long-chain aliphatic acids of various types. Concurrently, Dr. Raphael is also investigating synthetic routes to compounds containing the vitamin D triene system. He has recently been appointed lecturer in organic ehemtetry in the University of Glasgow.
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Meldola Medal for 1948 : Dr. R. A. Raphael. Nature 163, 630 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163630b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163630b0