Arthur Lapworth

Arthur Lapworth was a Scottish chemist, born in Galashiels on 10 October 1872, the son of the geologist Charles Lapworth, professor at Mason College in Birmingham. He studied the mechanisms and kinetics of organic reactions, and his most cited work was on the bromination of acetone, published in 1904. He graduated in chemistry from Mason College, later Birmingham University, and worked from 1893 to 1895 on a scholarship at the Central Technical College, then held posts at the School of Pharmacy in London and at Goldsmiths Institute. In 1909 he became senior lecturer in inorganic and physical chemistry at the University of Manchester, in 1913 professor of organic chemistry succeeding W. H. Perkin Jr., and in 1922 the Sir Samuel Hall Professor and director of laboratories. He was a pioneer of physical organic chemistry, and his proposal for the mechanism of the benzoin condensation underlies modern understanding of organic chemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1910, was awarded its Davy Medal in 1931, and retired in 1935, dying on 5 April 1941.