Alexander Robertus Todd was born on October 2nd 1907.
Our second Scottish Noble Laureate of the day, and indeed the second Glaswegian, Alexander was born in Cathcart in outer Glasgow, the son of Alexander Todd, a clerk with the Glasgow Subway, and his wife, Jane Lowry. Alexander Robertus Todd (Lord Todd) developed an interest in chemistry as an eight-year old while experimenting with iron filings from a toy chemistry set. Around four decades later, he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and was ranked among the leading biochemists in the world.
He was educated at Allan Glen’s School and Glasgow University, where he took his B.Sc. degree in 1928 He received a PhD from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main in 1931 for his thesis on the chemistry of the bile acids. Todd was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and, after studying at Oriel College, Oxford, he gained another doctorate in 1933.
Todd returned to Scotland in 1934 when he joined the staff of Edinburgh University under G. Barger. Two years later, i.e. in 1936 he moved to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Chelsea, and became Reader in Biochemistry in the University of London in 1937.
In 1938 he was appointed as Sir Samuel Hall Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratories of the University of Manchester, which position he held until 1944, when he accepted an appointment as Professor of Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University and Fellow of Christ’s College.
Todd’s honours are too numerous to mention in one article. From 1952 to 1964, he held the position of chairman of the advisory council on scientific policy to the British government. He was knighted as Sir Alexander Todd in 1954 for distinguished service to the government and was given a life peerage and named Lord Todd, Baron Todd of Trumpington in 1962. He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 1977. From 1975 to 1980, he served as the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Lord Alexander Todd died at the age of 89 at his home in Cambridge on 10 January, 1997, following a heart attack.
Affectionately called Todd Almighty by his students, he was remembered by those who had known him as an outstanding scientist with an extraordinary memory and a great fondness for cigarettes.
