Alan R. Katritzky

Alan Roy Katritzky was born in Harringay on 18 August 1928, son of Frederick Charles Katritzky, a tailor, and Emily Catherine (née Lane). From 1940 he was educated at Hornsey County Grammar School. After 18 months of National Service he entered St Catherine's College, Oxford in 1948. He obtained a first-class honours degree, and went on to study for a DPhil, which he gained in 1954. Katritzky’s research was on the structure of strychnine, supervised by Sir Robert Robinson. He stayed on at Oxford as an independent researcher, from 1954 to 1958, directing a small group at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory; his main interest was in pyridines.

Katritzky moved to Cambridge in 1958, continuing his research on pyridines as well as branching out into other areas. One such – NMR – particularly caught his interest, as it gave new insights into structure while leaving the sample intact.

At the age of 34 Alan Katritzky was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Head of a new school of Physical Sciences at UEA. Facing considerable opposition he argued that the should be Head of a School of Chemical Sciences. He was supported by Todd, Robinson and Cockcroft, and won the day. Much effort was expended in preparing undergraduate courses, designing and building new laboratories, and recruiting some 25 faculty members, in addition to carrying out his research in heterocyclic chemistry. Overall, Katritzky’s stay at UEA was “immensely productive”.

By 1980, the administrative load in the job was becoming too much, and he realised that if he stayed in the UK retirement was on the horizon. So, in that year, Katritzky accepted the Kenan Chair of Chemistry at the University of Florida, coinciding with his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1980.[1] It proved to be another very productive phase of Katritzky’s career, during which he established the Florida Center for Heterocyclic Compounds,[4] developed and made available a computer program (Codessa Pro: COmprehensive DEscriptors for Structural and Statistical Analysis)[5] and extensively researched the versatility of benzotriazoles in the synthesis of biologically interesting compounds.[6]

“During 60 years of research, Professor Katritzky's output was prodigious with over 2170 papers in the primary scientific literature plus authorship or editorship of more than 200 books. His work was recognized throughout the world by 33 honorary doctorates or professorships and awards.”[3]