Jack Baldwin (1938–2020)

Abstract

"Chemistry," Jack Baldwin once said in his direct way, "is about making forms of matter that have never existed." Baldwin was best known for formulating a set of rules that predict how likely it is that atoms (mostly carbon) in a synthesis will link into rings, a structural feature of many biological molecules and drugs. Published in just three pages (with a one-sentence abstract) in 1976 ( J. E. Baldwin J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 734–736; 1976), Baldwin's rules have been fundamental to organic synthesis in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, and to understanding biology from a chemical perspective. He died on 4 January, aged 81.