William von Eggers Doering
When William von Eggers Doering, a 26-year-old postdoctoral fellow under the direction of Robert Burns Woodward, completed the first formal synthesis of quinine at Harvard in the spring of 1944, the news made headlines in Time and Newsweek, and the New York Times called this work “one of the greatest scientific achievements in a century.” The success in making quinine not only promised access to the substance necessary for the cure of malaria, then a threat to U.S. soldiers fighting in southeast Asia, but also signaled the emergence of the United States as a world leader in chemical synthesis. For Doering, prowess in making chemical compounds may have made him an overnight sensation, but what fascinated him far more, and distinguished him in his later career, was the how and why of organic chemical reactions and the communication of his insights and technique to generations of students. Doering’s parents, both musicians,...