Jeffrey Harborne: Difference between revisions

'''Jeffrey Barry Harborne''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Prebble | first1 = J. N. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2010.0012 | title = Jeffrey Barry Harborne. 1 September 1928 -- 21 July 2002 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 56 | pages = 131 | year = 2010 | pmid = | pmc = }}</ref> (1 September 1928, in Bristol &ndash;– 21 July 2002) was a British chemist who specialised in [[phytochemistry]]. He was Professor of [[Botany]] at the [[University of Reading]], 1976–93, then [[Professor emeritus]]. He contributed to more than 40 books and 270 research papers and was a pioneer in ecological biochemistry, particularly in the complex chemical interactions between plants, microbes and insects.

Harborne was educated at [[Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire)|Wycliffe College]], Stonehouse, [[Gloucestershire]] and the [[University of Bristol]], where he graduated in chemistry in 1949. He earned a Ph.D.PhD in 1953 with a thesis on the naturally occurring oxygen heterocyclic compounds with Professor Wilson Baker (1900–2002).{{fact|date=March 2017}}

Between 1965 and 1968 Harborne worked as a research assistant at the [[University of Liverpool]]. After this, he worked with [http://www.reading.ac.uk/biologicalsciences/about/staff/v-h-heywood.aspx Vernon Heywood] at the University of Reading. Harborne was associate professor and research assistant in the Department of Botany. In 1976 he became professor. Between 1987 and 1993 he was head of the [http://www.reading.ac.uk/biologicalsciences/museums-facilities/biosci-harrisgarden.aspx Department of Botany]. In 1993 he retired. He had in his tenure at the [http://www.herbarium.reading.ac.uk/index.php University of Reading] also positions as visiting professor at the University Federal do Rio de Janeiro (1973), the University of Texas at Austin (1976), the University of California at Santa Barbara (1977) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1981).

|archivedate=2011-08-18 August 2011

In his book, [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0412572702 Phytochemicals Methods: A Guide to Modern Techniques of Plant Analysis] Prof. Harborne described a number of analytical methods in plant chemistry that he developed for the system of distribution of anthocyanins in major plant groups. In Comparative Biochemistry of the Flavonoids he described the biochemistry of flavonoids in various plant groups. In the scientific journal Natural Product Reports he wrote a series of review articles about the discovery of anthocyanins and other flavonoids. In his book Introduction to Ecological Biochemistry he described the ecological role of natural substances. The publication of this book is seen as the starting point of the study of environmental chemistry. Developments in the chemical ecology he described in a series of review articles in Natural Product Reports. He was (co) author of about 270 research and review articles. He was also author or editor of some forty books.

Harborne had a number of awards during his lifetime. In 1985 he received the [http://www.linnean-online.org/ Linnean Society of London], the Linnean Medal for his services to botany. He also received medals from the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE Medal) (1986) and the [http://www.springerlink.com/content/lr47505572613158/ International Society of Chemical Ecology] (1993). In 1993 he was awarded the Pergamon Phytochemistry Prize. In 1995 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2010 the University of Reading's Plant Science Laboratories, where he was Professor, were named the [http://www.reading.ac.uk/biologicalsciences/contact/biosci-contact.aspx Harborne Building] in his honorhonour.

He was editor-in-chief of the journal Phytochemistry, 1972-981972–98.

His niece, Katharine Harborne, studied Horticultural Botany at the University of Reading from 1979–19811979 to 1981 and became a plant pathologist researching the [http://www.sasta.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Proceedings/1980s/1988_Harborne_Population%20Dynamics%20Of%20The.pdf epidemiology] of [http://www.sasta.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Proceedings/1980s/1986_Rutherford_Purification%20Of%20Unaggerated%20Sugarcane.pdf Sugarcane Mosaic Virus] for the South African Sugar Association at Mount Edgecombe.{{fact|date=March 2017}}