John Cornforth

Sir

John Cornforth

AC CBE FRS FAA
Sir; John Cornforth; AC CBE FRS FAA
	Cornforth in 1975
Born	John Warcup Cornforth Jr.; 7 September 1917; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	8 December 2013 (aged 96); Sussex, England
Nationality	Australian
Citizenship	Australian; British
Alma mater	University of Sydney (B.Sc.); St Catherine's College, Oxford (D.Phil.);
Known for	Stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions; Cholesterol total synthesis; Cornforth reagent; Cornforth rearrangement
Spouse	Rita Harradence
Awards	Corday–Morgan Medal (1953); FRS (1953); Davy Medal (1968); Ernest Guenther Award (1969); Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1975); Royal Medal (1976); Copley Medal (1982);
	Scientific career
Fields	Organic chemistry
Institutions	University of Oxford; University of Warwick; University of Sussex;
Thesis	Synthesis of analogues of steroid hormones (1941)
Doctoral advisor	Robert Robinson

Sir John Warcup Cornforth Jr., AC, CBE, FRS, FAA (7 September 1917 – 8 December 2013) was an Australian–British chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975 for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions, becoming the only Nobel laureate born in New South Wales.

Cornforth investigated enzymes that catalyse changes in organic compounds, the substrates, by taking the place of hydrogen atoms in a substrate's chains and rings. In his syntheses and descriptions of the structure of various terpenes, olefins, and steroids, Cornforth determined specifically which cluster of hydrogen atoms in a substrate were replaced by an enzyme to effect a given change in the substrate, allowing him to detail the biosynthesis of cholesterol. For this work, he won a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975, alongside co-recipient Vladimir Prelog, and was knighted in 1977.

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