Skip to content

 

Fellows Directory

Laurence Barron

Laurence Barron

Professor Laurence Barron FRS

Fellow


Elected: 2005

Biography

Laurence Barron is a chemist who has conducted pioneering research into the properties of chiral (right- or left-handed) molecules — defined as those that cannot be superimposed onto their mirror image. By extending this definition of chirality to include moving particles and processes that vary with time, he has made a fundamental theoretical contribution to the field.

Chiral molecules such as amino acids, sugars, proteins and nucleic acids play a central role in the chemistry of life, and many drug molecules are chiral. Laurence’s work on Raman optical activity — a spectroscopic technique capable of determining the three-dimensional structures of chiral molecules, which he predicted, observed and applied to problems at the forefront of chemistry and structural biology — has led to its development as a powerful analytical tool used in academic and industrial laboratories worldwide.

Since 1998, Laurence has been Gardiner Professor of Chemistry (now Emeritus) at the University of Glasgow. A member of numerous learned societies, he was awarded the prestigious Chirality Medal by the Societa Chimica Italiana in 2011.

Interest and expertise

Subject groups

  • Chemistry
    • Chemistry, physical
  • Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
    • Biophysics and structural biology
  • Astronomy and physics
    • Elementary particle physics

Keywords

Molecular physics, Electric, magnetic and optical properties, Light scattering, Raman spectroscopy, Chirality, Optical activity, Vibrational optical activity, Raman optical activity, Protein structure and behaviour, Natively unfolded proteins, Astrobiology, Absolute enantioselection, Origin of life

Was this page useful?
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback. Please help us improve this page by taking our short survey.