William Alfred Ayer

Area:

Website:

Google:

Bio:

(1932 - 2005)
http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/news_seminars/2014/FINAL2014December.pdf
http://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlepdf/1954/jr/jr9540003505
http://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlepdf/1955/jr/jr9550002227
http://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlepdf/1955/jr/jr9550003027
DOI: 10.1016/0040-4020(58)88008-4
William Alfred (Bill) Ayer was born in Middle Sackville, New Brunswick,on 4 July 1932 and died on 2 December 2005 in Edmonton. He obtained his B. Sc. (Honors) degree in chemistry from the University of New Brunswick in 1953 at the head of his science class to win the Governor General’s Gold Medal.He remained to obtain his PhD with WI Taylor in 1956 and stayed on a year longer as a post-doctoral fellow with K Wiesner, working on the structure of an alkaloid from a Lycopodium plant. In 1957 Ayer joined a group in R. B.Woodward’s laboratory at Harvard that was working on the synthesis of the complex pigment chlorophyll, a great challenge of the time. This feat was completed in 1960 and led, in part, to Woodward’s winning the Nobel Prize. In 1958, Dr Ayer joined the Department of Chemistry here as Assistant Professor to begin an outstanding scientific career. Both Wiesner and Woodward were exacting scientists, a trait that Ayer acquired,and he soon built an internationally recognized natural products chemistry group. His research was centered on the structure determination and synthesis of biologically active molecules isolated from plants, fungi,insects, and soil organisms.
(Show less)

Mean distance: (not calculated yet)