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.