Dudley Howard Williams (1937–2010) was a British

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

known for utilizing

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR) spectroscopy and

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

in the study of molecular structure, especially the antibiotic

vancomycin Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections. It is recommended intravenously as a treatment for complicated skin infections, bloodstream infections, endocarditis, bone and joint infections, ...

Biography

Dudley Howard Williams was born on 25 May 1937 in

Farsley Farsley is a town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England to the west of Leeds city centre, east of Bradford. Farsley is situated between the two cities and near the town of Pudsey. Before April 1974, Farsley was pa ...

, Yorkshire, the only child of Lawrence Williams, an engineers chief order clerk, and Evelyn (née Hudson). He attended

Pudsey Grammar School Pudsey Grammar School is a secondary school with a sixth form in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It serves over 1300 pupils from the town and surrounding area. The school has a large Sixth Form of over 260 students offering 20 A level courses ...

, from where he gained a place at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. He graduated in 1958 with a first-class BSc in Chemistry. Williams' research for a PhD was on the synthesis of Vitamin D and related compounds, under the supervision of Basil Lythgoe, FRS at Leeds; his degree was awarded in 1961. That same year he was awarded a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

and moved to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

to work with

Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Middlebrook, Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is b ...

exploring the application of

(MS) in organic chemistry. He used the evenings to investigate the use of

(NMR) on a 100 MHz instrument with Norman Bhacca at nearby

Varian Associates Varian Associates was one of the first high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first vacuum tube which could amplify ...

. "In three stunningly productive years, he showed how mass spectrometry and NMR … could transform the way that organic chemists worked. His textbooks, reviews, research papers and lectures revolutionised organic chemistry over the following years". In December 1962 Djerassi gave Williams three months' leave to go back to England to marry Lorna Patricia Phyllis (always known as Pat) Bedford, whom he had met at Leeds. She was a secretary in the Chemistry department. They married on 9 March 1963 and travelled to California, which they enjoyed exploring in their leisure time. The next move was to Cambridge in 1964, to take up a junior position in Organic Chemistry, at the invitation of

Lord Todd Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd (2 October 1907 – 10 January 1997) was a British biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1 ...

. A condition of the move was that the department should buy a Varian 100 MHz NMR spectrometer and an AEI MS9 mass spectrometer. Williams stayed at Cambridge until his retirement in 2004. In his memoir of Dudley Williams, Sanders noted that "the different areas of isscience overlapped, intertwined and evolved so it is not easy to separate them out for discussion". He summarized Williams' work in three areas *NMR and MS *Determining the structures and modes of action of the

family of antibiotics *Evolution

Awards and honours

*1964 Fellow of

Churchill College Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

*1966

Meldola Medal The Meldola Medal and Prize was awarded annually from 1921 to 1979 by the Chemical Society and from 1980 to 2008 by the Royal Society of Chemistry to a British chemist who was under 32 years of age for promising original investigations in chemistr ...

, Royal Institute of Chemistry *1968 Corday–Morgan Medal, The Chemical Society *1983

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

*Tilden Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry *1984 Structural Chemistry Award, Royal Society of Chemistry *1990

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

*1990

Bader Award The Bader Award is a prize for organic chemistry awarded annually by the Royal Society of Chemistry since 1989. The winner, who receives £2,000 and a medal, gives a lecture tour in the UK. Winners Source: See also * List of chemistry awards ...

, Royal Society of Chemistry *1996 Leo Friend Award, American Chemical Society

Personal life

Dudley and Pat had two sons, Mark Howard in 1966 and Simon Bedford in 1968. Williams retired in 2004. Six years later he was diagnosed with an aggressive carcinoma of the liver. He died in a hospice in Cambridge on 3 November 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Dudley 1937 births 2010 deaths Academics of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Members of Academia Europaea British biochemists