View source for Alec Todd

{{short description|British biochemist}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name              = The Lord Todd
| honorific_suffix  = {{postnominals|country=GBR|OM|FRS|FRSE|size=100%}}
| caption           = Alexander Todd in 1957
| birth_name        = Alexander Robertus Todd
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1907|10|02}}
| birth_place       = [[Cathcart]], Scotland
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1997|01|10|1907|10|02}}
| death_place       = [[Oakington]], England
| image             = Alexander Todd Nobel.jpg
| fields            = [[Chemistry]], [[Biochemistry]]
| workplaces        = [[Lister Institute]] <br /> [[University of Edinburgh]] <br />[[University of London]] <br />[[University of Manchester]] <br /> [[University of Cambridge]]<br /> [[University of Strathclyde]] <br /> [[Hatfield Polytechnic]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Glasgow]]<br />[[University of Frankfurt am Main]] <br />[[Oriel College, Oxford]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[:de:Walther Borsche|Prof. Dr. Walther Borsche]], <br />[[Robert Robinson (organic chemist)|Sir Robert Robinson]]
| doctoral_students = [[J. Rodney Quayle]]
| prizes            = {{no wrap|[[Tilden Prize]] (1940)<br />[[Davy Medal]] (1949)<br />[[Royal Medal]] (1955)<br />[[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] (1957)<br />[[Paul Karrer Gold Medal]] (1963)<br />[[Copley Medal]] (1970)<br />[[Lomonosov Gold Medal]] (1978)}}
}}
'''Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd''' (2 October 1907 – 10 January 1997) was a British [[biochemist]] whose research on the structure and [[biosynthesis|synthesis]] of [[nucleotide]]s, [[nucleoside]]s, and nucleotide [[coenzyme]]s 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,<ref>[https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/justices-of-the-peace-records www.nrscotland.gov.uk]</ref> a clerk with the [[Glasgow Subway]], and his wife, Jane Lowry.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 770414|title = Alexander Robertus Todd, O. M., Baron Todd of Trumpington. 2 October 1907–10 January 1997|journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume = 46|pages = 517–532|last1 = Brown|first1 = Daniel M.|last2 = Kornberg|first2 = Hans|year = 2000| issue=–1|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1999.0130|doi-access = free}}</ref>

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 acid]]s.

Todd was awarded an [[1851 Research Fellowship]] from the [[Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851]],<ref>1851 Royal Commission Archives</ref> and, after studying at [[Oriel College, Oxford]], he received another doctorate (DPhil) in 1933.

==Career==
Todd held posts with the [[Lister Institute]], the [[University of Edinburgh]] (staff, 1934–1936) and the [[University of London]], where he was appointed [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]] in biochemistry.

In 1938, Alexander Todd spent six months as a visiting professor at [[California Institute of Technology]], eventually declining an offer of faculty position.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1957/todd-bio.html|title=Lord Todd – Biographical|website=www.nobelprize.org|access-date=2018-01-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVtMCAAAQBAJ&q=Alexander+R.+Todd+caltech&pg=PT152|title=The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology|last=Kay|first=Lily E.|date=1992-12-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028161-8|language=en}}</ref> 

Todd became the [[Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry]] and director of the Chemical Laboratories of the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]] in 1938, where he began working on nucleosides, compounds that form the structural units of nucleic acids ([[DNA]] and [[RNA]]). 
At 31, he was the youngest professor of chemistry since Frankland.  He was elected to membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] on 29.11.1938

In 1944, he was appointed to the [[BP Professor of Organic Chemistry|1702 Chair of Chemistry]] in the [[University of Cambridge]], which he held until his retirement in 1971.<ref>{{citation|title=The 1702 chair of chemistry at Cambridge: transformation and change|first1=Mary D. |last1=Archer|author-link=Mary Archer|first2= Christopher D. |last2=Haley
|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=0-521-82873-2}}, Chapter 9: Alexander Todd, p 233</ref> In 1949, he synthesised [[adenosine triphosphate]] (ATP) and [[flavin adenine dinucleotide]] (FAD). Todd served as a visiting professor at the [[University of Chicago]] in Autumn 1948<ref>{{cite book|last1=Todd|first1=Alexander|title=A Time to Remember: The Autobiography of a Chemist|date=17 November 1983|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-25593-7|pages=110}}</ref> and [[University of Sydney]] in 1950.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Our Work with Cyanogenic Plants|journal=Annual Review of Plant Biology|volume=59|pages=1–19|doi=10.1146/annurev.arplant.59.032607.092924|pmid=17988213|year=2008|last1=Conn|first1=Eric E.|issue=1 |doi-access=|bibcode=2008AnRPB..59....1C }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sydney.edu.au/science/chemistry/documents/alumni/Issue16.pdf|title=ChemNEWS (FACULTY OF SCIENCE)|website=The University of Sydney}}{{Dead link|date=June 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

By 1951 Todd an collaborators had determined by biochemical methods how the backbone of DNA is structured via the successive linking of carbon atoms 3 and 5 of the sugar to phosphates. This helped corroborate [[James_Watson|Watson]] and [[Francis Crick|Crick]]'s X-ray structural work published in 1953.<ref name="eighth">{{cite book |last1=Judson |first1=Horace |title=Eight Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology |date=1996 |isbn=0879694785}}</ref>{{rp|p=94|quote=About the time Watson came to the Cavendish, the final statement of the chemistry of these linkages in the nucleic acids was being written in another laboratory a block away; this was published early the next year as the tenth in a series of papers by Alexander Todd and various colleagues. Todd settled how the backbone hooks up: third carbon in the sugar ring linked to the phosphate and that in tum linked to the fifth carbon of the next sugar, and so on, with no branching.}}<ref name="buchanan">{{cite journal |last1=Buchanan |first1=J. Grant |title=Lord Todd 1907–1997 |journal=Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry |date=2000 |volume=55 |pages=xii, 1-13 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S006523180055001X}}</ref>{{rp|pages=7-8|quote=The action pattern of various diesterases, particularly pancreatic ribonuclease and a spleen nuclease on these monobenzyl esters showed that the phosphodiester linkage in RNA involved the 3' and 5' positions of adjacent ribofuranose units. This was consistent with an analogous (3'→5') phosphodiester structure for DNA, which lacks a 2'-hydroxyl group and is therefore stable to dilute aqueous alkali. The primary structures of RNA and DNA were thus determined. The work was sufficiently advanced to be reported to the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York in the autumn of 1951 and provided a firm basis for the entirely independent X-ray structural work of Watson, Crick, Franklin and Wilkins on DNA in 1953.}}

In 1955, he helped elucidate the structure of [[vitamin B12|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]], 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|vitamin B<sub>1</sub>]] and [[vitamin E]], the [[anthocyanins]] (the pigments of flowers and fruits) from insects (aphids, beetles) and studied [[alkaloids]] found in [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]]. He served as chairman of the [[Government of the United Kingdom]]'s advisory committee on [[science policy|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.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1940/jr/jr9400000649 | doi=10.1039/JR9400000649 | title=119. Cannabis indica. Part II. Isolation of cannabidiol from Egyptian hashish. Observations on the structure of cannabinol | date=1940 | last1=Jacob | first1=A. | last2=Todd | first2=A. R. | journal=Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed) | pages=649–653 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

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 [[Christ's College, Cambridge#Masters of Christ's|Master]] from 1963 to 1978. Lord Todd became the first [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of the new [[University of Strathclyde]] in 1965, and a visiting professor at [[University of Hertfordshire|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,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alexander R. Todd of Trumpington |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/15492.html |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1957,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alexander Robertus Todd |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/alexander-robertus-todd |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1965.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Lord+Todd&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> [[President of the Royal Society]] from 1975 to 1980, The Queen awarded him [[Member of the Order of Merit|the Order of Merit]] in 1977.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=47362 |date=28 October 1977 |page=13613}}</ref>

In 1981, Todd became a founding member of the [[World Cultural Council]].<ref>{{cite web | title = About Us | publisher = [[World Cultural Council]] | url = http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/about-us/ | access-date = 8 November 2016}}</ref>

==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:

* Dr the Hon 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 {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=90%|CBE|TD}}, of [[Somerford Booths]], [[Cheshire]];
* The Hon Helen Jean Todd (b. 1941), m. 1963 Philip Edgar Brown, and has two sons and a daughter;
* The Hon Hilary Alison Todd (b. 1946).<ref>[https://www.burkespeerage.com/ www.burkespeerage.com]</ref>

Todd died in Cambridge on 10 January 1997 at the age of 89 following a heart attack.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

==Honours==
Todd was honoured as a Nieuwland Lecturer at the [[University of Notre Dame]] in 1948,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Vitamins, coenzymes and nucleotides; a series of lectures presented at the University of Notre Dame on October 22, 25 and 27, 1948.|last=Todd|first=Alexander R|date=1949|publisher=University of Notre Dame|location=Notre Dame, Ind.|language=en|oclc = 6142088}}</ref> an Arthur D. Little Visiting Professor at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in 1954,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://chemistry.mit.edu/giving-alumni/donor-profiles/postdoc-ty-shen-honors-his-wife|title=Postdoc T.Y. Shen Honors his Wife {{!}} MIT Department of Chemistry|website=chemistry.mit.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915130515/http://chemistry.mit.edu/giving-alumni/donor-profiles/postdoc-ty-shen-honors-his-wife|archive-date=15 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> and a Hitchcock Lecturer at [[University of California, Berkeley]], in 1957.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gradlectures.berkeley.edu/lecture/nucleotide-co-enzymes/|title=Nucleotide Co-Enzymes: A Study in Synthesis {{!}} Berkeley Graduate Lectures|website=gradlectures.berkeley.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-27}}</ref>

[[Knight Bachelor|Knighted]] as Sir Alexander Todd in 1954<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=40227 |date=9 July 1954 |page=4026}}</ref> he was elevated as a [[Life Peer]] on 16 April 1962, being created '''Baron Todd''' of [[Trumpington, Cambridgeshire|Trumpington]] in the [[County of Cambridge]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42651 |date=17 April 1962 |page=3185}}</ref>

Lord Todd, Master of the [[Worshipful Company of Salters]] (1961/62) and then [[List of masters of Christ's College, Cambridge|Master of Christ's College]] (1963–78), is commemorated by a [[blue plaque]] erected by the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] at the [[Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry|Department of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge]].<ref>[https://alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk/lord-todd www.alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk]</ref>

{{Infobox COA wide
|escutcheon = Gules a Chevron between in chief two Foxes' Masks and in base a Serpent embowed biting the tail Or.
|coronet = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|35px]] [[Coronet|Coronet of a Baron]]
|crest = In front of an Open Book Proper bound Or a Fox passant guardant Gules.
|supporters = [[Dexter and sinister|Dexter]] an Ounce and [[Dexter and sinister|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 [[Escutcheon (heraldry)|Shield]] by its [[Phaleristics|ribbon]], the [[insignia]] of the [[Member of the Order of Merit|Order of Merit]]: <br />[[File:Medal of the Order of Merit (United Kingdom).svg|75px]]
|other_elements = As [[Master craftsman|Master Salter]] and then as [[List of masters of Christ's College, Cambridge|Master of Christ's College, Cambridge]], Lord Todd [[Impalement (heraldry)|impale]]d his arms of office (''dexter'') with his family [[coat of arms|arms]] (''sinister''):<br />[[File:SaltersCompany Arms.svg|35px]],[[File:Christ's College, Cambridge arms.svg|35px]]<ref>[https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/resources/impaling-arms-of-office www.college-of-arms.gov.uk]</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage |date=1985}}</ref>}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | last=Todd | first=Alexander | title=A Time to Remember | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=3 December 2009 | isbn=978-0-521-12673-1}}

==See also==
* [[Atherton–Todd reaction]]
* [[History of RNA biology]]
* [[List of RNA biologists]]
* [[List of presidents of the Royal Society|Presidents of the Royal Society]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{citation|title=Christ's: A Cambridge College Over Five Centuries|first=David|last= Reynolds|author-link=David Reynolds (English historian)
|publisher=Macmillan|year= 2005|isbn=0-333-98988-0}}: "The Era of Todd, Plumb and Snow", by Sir [[David Cannadine]].

==External links==
{{Commonscat}}
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-todd-1283405.html Obituary] in ''[[The Independent]]''
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/15/world/lord-todd-89-a-nobelist-for-work-on-nucleic-acids.html Obituary] in ''[[The New York Times]]''
*{{Nobelprize|name=Lord Todd}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1957 ''Synthesis in the Study of Nucleotides''
*{{NPG name}}
*{{citation | title=Interviews with Nobel Prize winning scientists: Alexander, Lord Todd | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/scientists/10601.shtml | year=1984 | publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation }}. Video of an interviewed with [[Lewis Wolpert]]. Duration 37 minutes.
*[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1874 Papers of Lord Todd] held at the [[Churchill Archives Centre]]

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{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1957 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Royal Society presidents 1900s}}
{{Copley Medallists 1951–2000}}
{{1702 Chairs of Chemistry (University of Cambridge)}}
{{Founding members of the World Cultural Council}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Alexander R.}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Glasgow]]
[[Category:People educated at Allan Glen's School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]]
[[Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Hertfordshire]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of London]]
[[Category:Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Founding members of the World Cultural Council]]
[[Category:Professors of chemistry (Cambridge, 1702)]]
[[Category:Goethe University Frankfurt alumni]]
[[Category:History of genetics]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Crossbench life peers]]
[[Category:Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Merit]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:People associated with the University of Strathclyde]]
[[Category:Presidents of the British Science Association]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Scottish biochemists]]
[[Category:Scottish biologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish chemists]]
[[Category:Scottish Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:People from Oakington]]
[[Category:People from Trumpington]]
[[Category:20th-century British biologists]]
[[Category:Vitamin researchers]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:British Nobel laureates]]