Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry III

Chris Ramsden was born in Manchester, UK in 1946. He is a graduate of Sheffield University and received his PhD in 1970 for a thesis entitled 'Meso-ionic Compounds' (W. D. Ollis) and a DSc in 1990. Subsequently he was a Robert A. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas (with M. J. S. Dewar)(1971-3), working on the development and application of semi-empirical MO methods, and an ICI Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of East Anglia (with A. R. Katritzky)(1973-6), working on the synthesis of novel heterocycles. In 1976 he moved to the pharmaceutical industry and was Head of Medicinal Chemistry (1986-1992) at Rhone-Poulenc, London. He moved to Keele University as Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1992, where he is now Emeritus Professor. His research interests include the structure and preparation of novel heterocycles, three-centre bonding in the context of the chemistry of betaines and hypervalent species, and the properties of the enzyme tyrosinase and related ortho-quinone chemistry. He was an Editor-in-Chief of 'Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry III' and a co-author of 'The Handbook of Heterocyclic Chemistry, 3rd Edn, 2010. Richard Taylor is currently Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of York, where his research focuses on the development of novel synthetic methodology and the synthesis of natural products and related compounds of biological/medicinal interest. The methodology is concentrated primarily on organometallic, organosulfur and oxidation processes and the targets include, amino acids, carbohydrates, prostaglandins, and polyene and polyoxygenated natural products, particularly with activity as antibiotics and anti-cancer agents. Richard Taylor is a graduate and postgraduate of the University of Sheffield, and he then carried out postdoctoral research at Syntex, California (Dr. I. T. Harrison) and University College London (Professor F. Sondheimer). His first academic appointment was at the Open University in Milton Keynes. This post gave Professor Taylor the opportunity to contribute to Open University textbooks, radio programmes and television productions on various aspects of organic chemistry. Professor Taylor then moved to UEA, Norwich where he established his independent research programme,before taking up his present position in York in 1993. Richard Taylor is the current President of the Organic Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was awarded the 1999 RSC Tilden Lectureship and the 1999 RSC Heterocyclic Prize. He is currently the UK Regional Editor of the international journal Tetrahedron.