Alec Todd

Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd (2 October

The Right Honourable
1907 – 10 January 1997) was a British biochemist
whose research on the structure and synthesis of The Lord Todd
OM FRS FRSE
nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes
gained him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957.

Early life and education

Todd was born at Cathcart in outer Glasgow, the elder
son of Alexander Todd, JP,[1] a clerk with the Glasgow
Subway, and his wife, Jane Lowry.[2]

He attended Allan Glen's School and graduated from

the University of Glasgow with a bachelor's degree
(BSc) in 1928. He received a doctorate (Dr Phil.nat.)
from Goethe University Frankfurt in 1931 for his
thesis on the chemistry of the bile acids.

Todd was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from Alexander Todd in 1957
the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851,[3] Born Alexander Robertus Todd
and, after studying at Oriel College, Oxford, he 2 October 1907
received another doctorate (DPhil) in 1933. Cathcart, Scotland
Died 10 January 1997 (aged 89)
Oakington, England
Career Alma mater University of Glasgow
University of Frankfurt am Main
Todd held posts with the Lister Institute, the University
Oriel College, Oxford
of Edinburgh (staff, 1934–1936) and the University of
London, where he was appointed Reader in Awards Tilden Prize (1940)
biochemistry. Davy Medal (1949)
Royal Medal (1955)
In 1938, Alexander Todd spent six months as a visiting Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1957)
professor at California Institute of Technology, Paul Karrer Gold Medal (1963)
eventually declining an offer of faculty position.[4][5] Copley Medal (1970)
Todd became the Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry Lomonosov Gold Medal (1978)
and director of the Chemical Laboratories of the Scientific career
University of Manchester in 1938, where he began
Fields Chemistry, Biochemistry
working on nucleosides, compounds that form the
structural units of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). Institutions Lister Institute
University of Edinburgh
University of London
In 1944, he was appointed to the 1702 Chair of University of Manchester
Chemistry in the University of Cambridge, which he University of Cambridge
held until his retirement in 1971.[6] In 1949, he University of Strathclyde
synthesised adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and flavin Hatfield Polytechnic
adenine dinucleotide (FAD). Todd served as a visiting Doctoral Prof. Dr. Walther Borsche,
professor at the University of Chicago in Autumn advisor Sir Robert Robinson
1948[7] and University of Sydney in 1950.[4][8][9] Doctoral J. Rodney Quayle
students
In 1955, he helped elucidate the structure of vitamin
B12, although the final formula and definite structure
was determined by Dorothy Hodgkin and her team, and later worked on the structure and synthesis of
vitamin B1 and vitamin E, the anthocyanins (the pigments of flowers and fruits) from insects (aphids,
beetles) and studied alkaloids found in cannabis. He served as chairman of the Government of the United
Kingdom's advisory committee on scientific policy from 1952 to 1964.

He is credited as the first person to synthesize H4-CBD and H2-CBD from Cannabidiol by hydrogenation
as early as 1940.[10]

He received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.”

Elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1944, he served as Master from 1963 to 1978. Lord
Todd became the first Chancellor of the new University of Strathclyde in 1965, and a visiting professor at
Hatfield Polytechnic (1978–1986). Among his many honours, including over 40 honorary degrees, he was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1942, a member of the United States National Academy of
Sciences in 1955,[11] a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957,[12] and the
American Philosophical Society in 1965.[13] President of the Royal Society from 1975 to 1980, The
Queen awarded him the Order of Merit in 1977.[14]

In 1981, Todd became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[15]

Personal life and death

In 1937, Todd married Alison Sarah Dale (d. 1987), daughter of Nobel Prize winner Henry Hallett Dale,
who like Todd, served as President of the Royal Society of London. They had a son and two daughters:

Alexander Henry Todd (b. 1939), educated at Oriel College, Oxford, Master Salters'
Company (1999/2000), m. 1stly 1967 (div 1981) Joan Margaret Koester, m. 2ndly Patricia
Mary Harvey Jones, daughter of Brigadier Alan Harvey Jones CBE TD, of Somerford Booths,
Cheshire;
Helen Jean Todd (b. 1941), m. 1963 Philip Edgar Brown, and has two sons and a daughter;
Hilary Alison Todd (b. 1946).[16]
Todd died in Cambridge on 10 January 1997 at the age of 89 following a heart attack.

Honours
Todd was honoured as a Nieuwland Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame in 1948,[17] an Arthur D.
Little Visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954,[4][18] and a Hitchcock Lecturer
at University of California, Berkeley, in 1957.[4][19]

Knighted as Sir Alexander Todd in 1954[20] he was elevated as a Life Peer on 16 April 1962, being
created Baron Todd of Trumpington in the County of Cambridge.[21]

Lord Todd, Master of the Worshipful Company of Salters (1961/62) and then Master of Christ's College
(1963–78), is commemorated by a blue plaque erected by the Royal Society of Chemistry at the
Department of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge.[22]

Coat of arms of Alec Todd

Coronet
Coronet of a Baron
Crest
In front of an Open Book Proper bound Or a Fox passant guardant Gules.
Escutcheon
Gules a Chevron between in chief two Foxes' Masks and in base a Serpent embowed biting the tail Or.
Supporters
Dexter an Ounce and Sinister a Fox each Sable bezanty and gorged with a Ducal Coronet with Chain
reflexed over the back Or pendant from the Coronet by a like chain an Escutcheon Blue celeste.
Motto
Faire Sans Dire
Orders
Suspended below the Shield by its ribbon, the insignia of the Order of Merit:

Other elements
As Master Salter and then as Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, Lord Todd impaled his arms of
office (dexter) with his family arms (sinister):
[23][24]
,

Bibliography
Todd, Alexander (3 December 2009). A Time to Remember. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-12673-1.

See also
Atherton–Todd reaction
History of RNA biology
List of RNA biologists
Presidents of the Royal Society

References
 1. www.nrscotland.gov.uk (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-g
uides-a-z/justices-of-the-peace-records)
2. Brown, Daniel M.; Kornberg, Hans (2000). "Alexander Robertus Todd, O. M., Baron Todd of
Trumpington. 2 October 1907–10 January 1997". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the
Royal Society. 46 (–1): 517–532. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1999.0130 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Fr
sbm.1999.0130). JSTOR 770414 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/770414).
3. 1851 Royal Commission Archives
4. "Lord Todd – Biographical" (https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/19
57/todd-bio.html). www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
5. Kay, Lily E. (3 December 1992). The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller
Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology (https://books.google.com/books?id=QVtMCA
AAQBAJ&q=Alexander+R.+Todd+caltech&pg=PT152). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0-19-028161-8.
6. Archer, Mary D.; Haley, Christopher D. (2005), The 1702 chair of chemistry at Cambridge:
transformation and change, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-82873-2, Chapter 9:
Alexander Todd, p 233
7. Todd, Alexander (17 November 1983). A Time to Remember: The Autobiography of a
Chemist. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0-521-25593-7.
8. Conn, Eric E. (2008). "Our Work with Cyanogenic Plants". Annual Review of Plant Biology.
59: 1–19. doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.59.032607.092924 (https://doi.org/10.1146%2Fannur
ev.arplant.59.032607.092924). PMID 17988213 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1798821
3).
9. "ChemNEWS (FACULTY OF SCIENCE)" (http://sydney.edu.au/science/chemistry/document
s/alumni/Issue16.pdf) (PDF). The University of Sydney.
10. Jacob, A.; Todd, A. R. (1940). "119. Cannabis indica. Part II. Isolation of cannabidiol from
Egyptian hashish. Observations on the structure of cannabinol" (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/cont
ent/articlelanding/1940/jr/jr9400000649). Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed): 649–
653. doi:10.1039/JR9400000649 (https://doi.org/10.1039%2FJR9400000649).
11. "Alexander R. Todd of Trumpington" (http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-
members/15492.html). www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
12. "Alexander Robertus Todd" (https://www.amacad.org/person/alexander-robertus-todd).
American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
13. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Lord+Todd&ti
tle=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced).
search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
14. "No. 47362" (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/47362/page/13613). The London
Gazette. 28 October 1977. p. 13613.
15. "About Us" (http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/about-us/). World Cultural Council.
Retrieved 8 November 2016.
16. www.burkespeerage.com (https://www.burkespeerage.com/)
17. Todd, Alexander R (1949). Vitamins, coenzymes and nucleotides; a series of lectures
presented at the University of Notre Dame on October 22, 25 and 27, 1948. Notre Dame,
Ind.: University of Notre Dame. OCLC 6142088 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/6142088).
18. "Postdoc T.Y. Shen Honors his Wife | MIT Department of Chemistry" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20150915130515/http://chemistry.mit.edu/giving-alumni/donor-profiles/postdoc-ty-she
n-honors-his-wife). chemistry.mit.edu. Archived from the original (http://chemistry.mit.edu/givi
ng-alumni/donor-profiles/postdoc-ty-shen-honors-his-wife) on 15 September 2015.
Retrieved 27 January 2018.
19. "Nucleotide Co-Enzymes: A Study in Synthesis | Berkeley Graduate Lectures" (http://gradlec
tures.berkeley.edu/lecture/nucleotide-co-enzymes/). gradlectures.berkeley.edu. Retrieved
27 January 2018.
20. "No. 40227" (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40227/page/4026). The London
Gazette. 9 July 1954. p. 4026.
21. "No. 42651" (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/42651/page/3185). The London
Gazette. 17 April 1962. p. 3185.
22. www.alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk (https://alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk/lord-todd)
23. www.college-of-arms.gov.uk (https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/resources/impaling-arms-o
f-office)
24. Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage. 1985.

Further reading
Reynolds, David (2005), Christ's: A Cambridge College Over Five Centuries, Macmillan,
ISBN 0-333-98988-0: "The Era of Todd, Plumb and Snow", by Sir David Cannadine.

External links
Obituary (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-todd-1283405.html) in
The Independent
Obituary (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/15/world/lord-todd-89-a-nobelist-for-work-on-nu
cleic-acids.html) in The New York Times
Lord Todd (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/221) on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel
Lecture, 11 December 1957 Synthesis in the Study of Nucleotides
Portraits of Alec Todd (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp058
40) at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Interviews with Nobel Prize winning scientists: Alexander, Lord Todd (https://www.bbc.co.uk/
archive/scientists/10601.shtml), British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984. Video of an
interviewed with Lewis Wolpert. Duration 37 minutes.
Papers of Lord Todd (https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1874)
held at the Churchill Archives Centre

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