Robert Owen Hutchins (September 25, 1939 – October 9, 2009) was an American organic chemist and educator. Born in Danville, Illinois, Hutchins earned a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1961, an M.A. degree in

phytochemistry Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and ...

from

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

in 1962, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degree in organic chemistry from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

under Joseph Wolinsky in 1967. He then completed a two-year post-doctoral research position with Ernest L. Eliel at

Notre Dame University The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campus ...

, He then joined

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

as an assistant professor in 1968; he was promoted to associate professor in 1974, and then full professor in 1979. He was named G.S. Sasin Professor of Organic Chemistry and served as chemistry department head for 14 years. He retired in 2008. His research focused on new

hydride In chemistry, a hydride is formally the anion of hydrogen( H−). The term is applied loosely. At one extreme, all compounds containing covalently bound H atoms are called hydrides: water (H2O) is a hydride of oxygen, ammonia is a hydride of ...

reagents for asymmetric reduction, and the conformational analysis of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

containing heterocycles. The ISI web of knowledge lists 96 publications and presentations at national meetings by Professor Hutchins and his co-workers, 2962 citations without self-citations, and a

Hirsch index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 32. Drexel honored Hutchins with a Research Achievement Award in 1982 and a University Scholar Award in 1985. In 1987 he received both the distinguished alumni award from California State and the 26th Research Award of the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Section of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

. The Chemistry Department at Drexel announced establishment of the Dr. Robert O. Hutchins Endowed Chemistry Prize in 2002. The Constantine Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building at Drexel has an organic chemistry teaching laboratory named in memory of Hutchins. Hutchins received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback distinguished teaching Award from Drexel in 1980. Among his notable group alumni are

Bruce E. Maryanoff Bruce Eliot Maryanoff FRSC (born February 26, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American medicinal and organic chemist. Background and contributions Maryanoff received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1969, and a PhD degree in organic che ...

(inventor of topamax or

topiramate Topiramate, sold under the brand name Topamax among others, is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor medication used to treat epilepsy and prevent migraines. It has also been used in alcohol dependence. For epilepsy this includes treatment for gener ...

), who was his first Ph.D. student (B.S. 1970, Ph.D. 1972), and Cindy A. (Milewski) Maryanoff, who was an undergraduate research participant (B.S. 1972). Dr. Ira Taffer (Ph.D.) and Dr. Robert Zipkin (B.S. Drexel, Ph.D. Univ. Penn), an undergraduate researcher, who later founded the Biotech company BIOMOL, were members of his research group. Hutchins died on October 9, 2009, after an illness. His wife, Mary Gail Kinzer Hutchins, preceded him in death on August 16, 2001. He left behind two sons as well as two grandsons.

References

* Chemical & Engineering News, November 16, 2009, page 50, www.cen-online.org 1939 births 2009 deaths Drexel University faculty 20th-century American chemists People from Danville, Illinois University of California alumni California State University, Long Beach alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Purdue University alumni {{US-chemist-stub