Robert J. Ferrier
| Robert J. Ferrier | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
7 August 1932 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 11 July 2013 (aged 80) Wellington, New Zealand |
| Residence | Wellington |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Other names |
|
| Citizenship | New Zealand |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Spouse(s) | Carolyn Louise Tompkins |
| Children | Alison, Duncan |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions |
Birkbeck College, University of London Victoria University of Wellington |
| Doctoral advisor | Professor Gerald Aspinall |
| Notable students | Peppi Prasit, Richard Furneaux, Peter Tyler |
Robert John "Robin" Ferrier FRSNZ, FNZIC, (7 August 1932 – 11 July 2013) was an organic chemist who invented two chemical reactions, the Ferrier rearrangement and the Ferrier carbocyclization. Originally from Edinburgh, he moved to Wellington, New Zealand, in 1970.
Ferrier was born in Edinburgh on 7 August 1932. Following the family’s idiosyncratic naming tradition, although he was named Robert John, he was always known as Robin. Likewise his father Edward was known as William and his mother Sophia was known as Rita. William was a policeman and became head of Edinburgh CID, while Rita was a housewife.
His only sibling was a fraternal twin sister Dr Barbara M. Ferrier (d. 2006), known as Ray, who likewise became an organic chemist, becoming professor emeritus of the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University. A polycyclic ketone "barbaralone", related to bullvallene was named after her.
Ferrier attended George Heriot's School for all of his schooling, apart from a brief time in Traquair, to where he was evacuated during the war with his mother and sister.
He gained a Bachelor of Science with first class honours in 1954 and a PhD in plant polysaccharides in 1957, under Professor Gerald Aspinall.
Appointed to a teaching position at Birkbeck College, University of London, Ferrier's focus turned from polysaccharides to monosaccharides. New laboratory tools and methods enabled their reactions and mechanisms to be studied like normal organic compounds, rather than a separate field, and he pioneered this approach. In the early 1960s as a NATO Post Doctoral Fellow, he worked in Professor Melvin Calvin’s group at the University of California, Berkeley. They were exciting times. While Ferrier was there, Calvin was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and he also met Carolyn Tompkins, the pair marrying in Edinburgh in 1962.
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