Robert Walker Hay FRSE FRCS (1934–1999) was a British chemist. He held the chair in Chemistry at Stirling University and later St Andrews University.

Robert Walker Hay
Born17 September 1934
Stirling, Scotland
Died8 January 1999
Alma materGlasgow University
Known forCurtis-Hay ligands
Scientific career
Fieldsorganic chemistry
InstitutionsVictoria University of Wellington, University of Sterling, St Andrews University
Thesis
Doctoral studentsKevin Tate

Life edit

Hay went to Glasgow University to study Chemistry, graduating BSc in 1956 and then later receiving a doctorate (PhD) in Carbohydrate Chemistry in 1959.[1]

Hay moved to New Zealand in around 1962 to take up a post lecturing in both Organic and Inorganic Chemistry at the Victoria University of Wellington. Here, together with Neil Curtis, he formulated the Curtis-Hay ligands, a method of preparing diamines in acetone.[1]

In 1978 Hay was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Ronald Percy Bell, William Parker, John Michael Tedder, Charles Kemball, Evelyn Ebsworth and Roy Foster.[2]

The Bob Hay Lectureship edit

The Bob Hay Lectureship was established by the Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry Interest Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2001 in Hay's memory.[3] The lecture is given annually by a younger chemist (within 15 years of the completion of their PhD) working in the area of macrocyclic and/or supramolecular chemistry.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Perspectives on Bioinorganic Chemistry, foreword by Dr David T Ritchens
  2. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  3. ^ "Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry Group Awards". Royal Society of Chemistry.