Walter Haworth

British chemist (1883–1950)

Haworth, who was born in Chorley, began work in a linoleum factory managed by his father. This required some knowledge of dyes, which led Haworth to chemistry. Despite his family's objections he persisted in private study until he was sufficiently qualified to gain admission to Manchester University in 1903, where he studied under and later worked with William Perkin, Jr. on terpenes. Haworth did his postgraduate studies at Göttingen where, in 1910, he gained his PhD. In 1912 he joined the staff of St. Andrews University and worked with Thomas Purdie and James Irvine on carbohydrates. He remained there until 1920 when, after five years at the University of Durham, he was appointed Mason Professor of Chemistry at Birmingham, where he remained until his retirement in 1948.

Emil Fischer had dominated late 19th-century organic chemistry and, beginning in 1887, had synthesized a number of sugars taking them to be open-chain structures, most of which were built on a framework of six carbon atoms. Haworth however succeeded in showing that the carbon atoms in sugars are linked by oxygen into rings: either there are five carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, giving a pyranose ring, or there are four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, giving a furanose ring. When the appropriate oxygen and hydrogen atoms are added to these rings the result is a sugar. He went on to represent the carbohydrate ring by a perspective formula, today known as a Haworth formula.

With Edmund Hirst (1898–1975) he went on to establish the point of closure of the ring using the technique of converting the sugar into its methyl ester. He later investigated the chain structure of various polysaccharides. In 1929 he published his views in The Constitution of the Sugars.

In 1933 Haworth and his colleagues achieved a further triumph. Albert Szent-Györgyi had earlier isolated a substance from the adrenal cortex and from orange juice which he named hexuranic acid. It was in fact vitamin C and Haworth, again in collaboration with Hirst, succeeded in synthesizing it. He called it ascorbic acid.

For this work, the first synthesis of a vitamin, Haworth shared the 1937 Nobel Prize for chemistry with Paul Karrer.

(1883-1950) British chemist; identified the structures of, and synthesized, many carbohydrates. Achieved the first chemical synthesis of a vitamin (vitamin C) in 1932; Nobel Prize 1937.

Sir Walter Norman Haworth
Walter Haworth
Born	March 19, 1883(1883-03-19) Chorley, Lancashire, England
Died	March 19, 1950 (aged 67) Barnt Green, Worcestershire, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Organic chemistry
Institutions	Durham University University of Birmingham
Alma mater	University of Manchester University of Göttingen
Doctoral advisor	William Henry Perkin, Jr., Otto Wallach
Known for	investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C
Notable awards	Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1937)

Sir Walter Norman Haworth (March 19, 1883, Chorley, Lancashire – March 19, 1950, Barnt Green, Worcestershire) was a British chemist who is best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid (vitamin C) whilst working at Birmingham University.

He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins.

He decided to attend Manchester University in 1903 and study chemistry after working for some time in a linoleum factory run by his father. He made this decision in spite of the strong disapproval of his parents. After he finished his master's degree with William Henry Perkin, Jr., he subsequently studied at the University of Göttingen earning his PhD degree with Otto Wallach.

In 1912 Haworth became a lecturer at United College of University of St Andrews in Scotland and became interested in carbohydrate chemistry, which was being investigated at St Andrews by Thomas Purdie (1843-1916) and James Irvine (1877-1952). Haworth began his work on simple sugars in 1915 and developed a new method for the preparation of the methyl ethers of sugars using methyl sulfate and alkali (now called Haworth methylation). He then began studies on the structural features of the disaccharides.

Haworth organized the laboratories at St Andrews University for the production of chemicals and drugs for the British government during World War I (1914-1918). He was appointed professor of organic chemistry at Durham University in 1920. Three years later, he became Mason Professor of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham.

In 1934, working with British chemist Sir Edmund Hirst, he was able to synthesize vitamin C.

He developed a simple method of representing on paper the three-dimensional structure of sugars. The representation, now known as a Haworth projection, is still widely used in biochemistry.^[1]

He was knighted in 1947. He died on March 19, 1950, his 67th birthday.

Haworth is commemorated at Birmingham University in the Haworth Building, which houses most of the Birmingham University School of Chemistry). Also, the School now has a Haworth Chair of Organic Chemistry, currently held by Professor Nigel Simpkins.

References

1. ^ Garrett, R.; Grisham, C. M. (2005), Biochemistry (3rd ed.), Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole, p. 207, ISBN 0-534-49011-6 

External links

• Walter Haworth's biography at the Nobel Prize Web Site

v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Chemistry Theodor Svedberg (1926) · Heinrich Wieland (1927) · Adolf Windaus (1928) · Arthur Harden / Hans von Euler-Chelpin (1929) · Hans Fischer (1930) · Carl Bosch / Friedrich Bergius (1931) · Irving Langmuir (1932) · Harold Urey (1934) · Frédéric Joliot-Curie / Irène Joliot-Curie (1935) · Peter Debye (1936) · Walter Haworth / Paul Karrer (1937) · Richard Kuhn (1938) · Adolf Butenandt / Leopold Ružička (1939) · George de Hevesy (1943) · Otto Hahn (1944) · Artturi Virtanen (1945) · James B. Sumner / John Northrop / Wendell Meredith Stanley (1946) · Robert Robinson (1947) · Arne Tiselius (1948) · William Giauque (1949) · Otto Diels / Kurt Alder (1950) Complete roster · 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

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