Barton, Sir Derek H R

Barton, Sir Derek H(arold) R(ichard)

(born Sept. 8, 1918, Gravesend, Kent, Eng.—died March 16, 1998, College Station, Texas, U.S.) British chemist. Unsatisfied in his father's carpentry business, he entered London's Imperial College and received his doctorate in 1942. His studies revealed that organic molecules have a preferred three-dimensional form from which their chemical properties can be inferred. This research earned him the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, shared with Odd Hassel of Norway.