The Arthur Birch lecture

The aim of the visit of the Birch Lecturer is to enable eminent chemists to deliver a series of lectures on their research and to interact with School students and staff.

Professor Arthur John Birch

The Award was established in 1981 in honour of Arthur J. Birch, MSc (Sydney & Manchester), DPhil (Oxon), FRIC, FRACI, FAA, FRS, to pay tribute to his extensive contributions to the Research School of Chemistry from its founding in 1967. The Birch (and Craig) Lectures are highlights in the School's calendar year.

The aim of the visit of the Birch Lecturer is to enable eminent chemists to deliver a series of lectures on their research and to interact with School students and staff.

Birch Lecturers are chemists who are at the peak of their international career. The accompanying list of former lecturers is testament to the superb quality of honoraries who have visited the Research School, fifteen 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 allocated on an annual basis and the Birch Lecturer will spend about one week in the School.

Year	Professor	Home institution	Subject
2019	Professor Frances Arnold 2018 Nobel Laureate	California Institute of Technology	Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life
2018	Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski	Carnegie Mellon University	Macromolecular Engineering by Taming Free Radicals
2017	Professor Sir Christopher Dobson	University of Cambridge	The Amyloid State of Proteins and its Significance in Biology and Medicine
2016	Professor Arieh Warshel 2013 Nobel Laureate	University of Southern California	Modeling the action of complex biological systems on a molecular level
2015	Professor Samir Zard	Ecole Polytechnique	Fun with Radicals. A Matter of Lifetime
2014	Professor Dame Carol Robinson	University of Oxford	Membranes, Micelles and Motors – Maintaining the Momentum
2013	Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart 2016 Nobel Laureate	Northwestern University	New Twists and Turns in Radical Organic Chemistry
2012	Professor Dan Shechtman 2011 Nobel Laureate	Technion, Haifa	The Discovery of Quasi-periodic Materials. A Paradigm Change in Crystallography
2011	Professor Barry Trost	Stanford University	On the Invention of Pd Catalyzed Reactions for Enabling Chemical Synthesis
2010	Professor Steven Ley	University of Cambridge	New Tools for Molecule Makers
2009	Professor Daniel G. Nocera	Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Powering the planet: the challenge for science in the 21st century
2008	Professor Thomas A. Steitz 2009 Nobel Laureate	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
2007	Professor Richard R. Schrock 2005 Nobel Laureate	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	The Discovery and Development of Alkene and Alkyne Metathesis Reactions
2006	Professor Michael Graetzel	Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Switzerland	Light and energy, mimicking natural photosynthesis
2005	Professor Roger Tsien 2008 Nobel Laureate	University of California, San Diego	Building and breeding molecules to spy on cells and tumors
2004	Professor Robert H Grubbs 2005 Nobel Laureate	Victor & Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry, Caltech	Ruthenium-based catalysts for olefin metathesis
2003	Professor Sir Harry Kroto 1999 Nobel Laureate	University of Sussex	2010, a nanospace odyssey
2002	Professor Peter G Schultz	Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla	Expanding the genetic code
2000	Professor David A Evans	Harvard University	Asymmetric catalysis with chiral metal complexes
1999	Professor Hubert Schmidbaur	Technische Universität München	Gold chemistry: from alchemy to relativity and back
1998	Professor Arthur Kornberg 1959 Nobel Laureate	Stanford University School of Medicine	Science and medicine at the millennium
1997	Professor Peter Day	The Royal Institution of Great Britain	What is a material?
1996	Professor Jean-Marie Lehn 1987 Nobel Laureate	Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg and College de France, Paris	Supramolecular chemistry: concepts and perspectives
1995	Professor Robert G Bergman	University of California, Berkeley	Activation of hydrocarbons with transition metal compounds
1994	Professor John S Rowlinson	Oxford University, UK	Entropy and Information
1993	Professor Alex Pines	University of California and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory	Some magnetic moments
1992	Professor Sir John M Thomas FRS	Formerly Director, Royal Institution London, Deputy Pro Chancellor, University of Wales	New catalysts for a clean environment
1991	Professor Jeremy Knowles	Harvard University	Enzyme catalysists: not different, just better
1990	Professor Ryoji Noyori 2001 Nobel Laureate	Nagoya University	Asymmetric catalysis: science and opportunities
1989	Professor J D Dunitz	Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich	Chemical reaction paths from crystal structure data
1988	No lecture
1987	Professor Gilbert Stork	Columbia University, New York	Radical cyclisation in natural product synthesis
1986	Professor Roald Hoffmann 1981 Nobel Laureate		Building bridges between organic and inorganic chemistry
1985	Professor Rudolph A Marcus 1992 Nobel Laureate	California Institute of Technology	Electron transfer reactions: theory and experiment
1984	Professor Elias J Corey 1990 Nobel Laureate	Harvard University	Total synthesis of biologically active molecules
1983	Professor Henry Taube 1983 Nobel Laureate	Stanford University	Back bonding as it affects reactivity
1982	Professor J A Pople 1998 Nobel Laureate	Carnegie-Mellon University	Obital theory, structure and reactivity
1981	Professor A Eschenmoser	Eidgenössische technische hochschule, Zürich	Organic synthesis and the origin of natural products

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The Arthur Birch lecture