Theodora Whatmough Greene (19 November 1931 – 14 July 2005) was a chemist, most well known for authoring the book ''Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis'',
which summarises the use of
protecting groups
A protecting group or protective group is introduced into a molecule by chemical modification of a functional group to obtain chemoselectivity in a subsequent chemical reaction. It plays an important role in multistep organic synthesis.
In many ...
in
organic synthesis
Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the intentional construction of organic compounds. Organic molecules are often more complex than inorganic compounds, and their synthesis has developed into one o ...
.
Early life and education
Theodora Whatmough was born in Boston in 1931. She completed a bachelor’s degree at
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
and followed by a master’s degree at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. In 1953, she married fellow chemist Frederick Greene, with whom she had four children.
Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis
In 1975, at the age of 44, Greene returned to science to undertake a PhD under the supervision of
EJ Corey
Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemistry, organic chemist. In 1990, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis. ...
. She received her PhD on 5 June 1980 whereupon she adapted her thesis into a book, ''Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis'' (John Wiley & Sons), published in 1981 and co-authored with Peter G. M. Wuts. ''Protective Groups'', now in its fifth edition, has found its place as a common reference textbook in organic chemistry labs, where it is used as a guide for the selection of
protecting groups
A protecting group or protective group is introduced into a molecule by chemical modification of a functional group to obtain chemoselectivity in a subsequent chemical reaction. It plays an important role in multistep organic synthesis.
In many ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Theodora
American women chemists
People from Boston
1931 births
2005 deaths
Radcliffe College alumni
20th-century American women
21st-century American women