Some Recollections of Gap Jumping (Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams)

Nobel Laureate Sir Derek Barton discusses his scientific career, which embraced tenures as Professor at Imperial College, London for 20 years before becoming Director of Research at the CNRS at Gif-sur-Yvette, France for a decade, and now professor at Texas A&M University. Barton highlights his work in natural products synthesis and structure identification, his development of novel synthetic reactions, and his recent research in radical chemistry. His volume is laced with numerous anecdotes about many famous chemists and contains 49 photographs.

"Young academic chemists may think themselves too busy to read books of this series, which is a pity: they might learn how to take a detached view of their own work, and ask the question, am I working on truly significant problems in the small time life has allotted to me?" --The Chemical Intelligencer

"Barton summarises his life as 'Some recollections of gap jumping', referring to the fact that he was able to see relationships between facts which had escaped others. His philosophy has been to move on to new researches 'if you cannot remember all the published papers in the field in which you are working'. Short pen sketches of other famous chemists conclude this autobiography of a great organic chemist."--Interdisciplinary Science Reviews