Jack Baldwin (chemist)

Baldwin was the second son of Frederick C N Baldwin and Olive F Headland. He was educated at Brighton Grammar School and Lewes County Grammar School. He attended Imperial College, London (BSc, DIC, PhD).[1] He received his Ph.D. working under the direction of Sir Derek H.R. Barton, FRS, Nobel Laureate,[9] who described him as his best student.[5]

After four years on the staff at Imperial College, Baldwin moved to the United States: first to Pennsylvania State University in 1967 and then to MIT in 1970,[10] where he published his most significant work — Baldwin's rules for ring closure reactions. It was also where Baldwin met his future wife, Christine Louise Franchi; they married in 1977. In 1978, he moved to Oxford to become head of the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, where he upgraded its facilities and revolutionised the type of work done, while building links between Organic Chemistry and basic biological research. The laboratory formally closed in 2003, but his group moved to the new research facility, the Chemistry Research Laboratory on Mansfield Road.

One of Baldwin's passions was finding out how nature makes chemicals that researchers cannot. This led him to ‘biomimetic’ synthesis: using the principles of nature to improve the generation of biomolecules in the laboratory.[11]

The Baldwin group’s range of interests includes mechanisms of reactions; total synthesis of natural products such as trichoviridin, acromelic acid A, hypoglycin A and lactacystin; and biomimetic synthesis of natural products such as (-)-xestospongin A. Baldwin published over 700 papers.[5]

Georgina Ferry's obituary of Baldwin[11] notes that "he had little time for the academic conventions of Oxford: he spoke his mind." and that "he enjoyed good food, fine wine, powerful motorbikes, fast cars and his dogs." Some of these aspects of his character are illustrated in a three-part documentary.[12]