Alexander McKenzie FRS (6 December 1869,

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

– 11 June 1951) was a Scottish chemist, specializing in stereochemistry.

Kinetic resolution In organic chemistry, kinetic resolution is a means of differentiating two enantiomers in a racemic mixture. In kinetic resolution, two enantiomers react with different reaction rates in a chemical reaction with a chiral catalyst or reagent, re ...

by synthetic means was first reported in 1899 by Marckwald and McKenzie.

Life

After education at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

from 1882 to 1885, McKenzie matriculated in 1885 at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, where he studied Chemistry under Prof Thomas Purdie FRS and graduated in 1889 with M.A. in 1889 and in 1891 with the research degree B.Sc. in chemistry. At St Andrews, he was from 1891 to 1893 a lecture assistant to Thomas Purdie, from 1893 to 1896 a "university assistant" engaged in teaching, and from 1896 to 1898 a research assistant to Purdie in stereochemistry and optical activity. In 1898 McKenzie went to the University of Berlin to work under

Landolt Landolt is a Swiss surname. It may refer to: People * Arlo U. Landolt (1935-2022), American astronomer *Dennis Landolt (born 1986), American footballer *Edmund Landolt (1846–1926), Swiss ophthalmologist who developed "Landolt C" *Elias Landolt (1 ...

and received there in 1899 his D.Sc. He left Berlin in 1901 after receiving his Ph.D. under the supervision of Marckwald and went to London's

Jenner Institute The Jenner Institute is a research institute on the Old Road Campus in Headington, east Oxford, England. It was formed in November 2005 through a partnership between the University of Oxford and the UK Institute for Animal Health. It is as ...

, where he stayed until 1902. At Birbeck College, London, McKenzie was from 1902 to 1905 an assistant lecturer and demonstrator and from 1905 to 1914 head of the chemistry department. At University College, Dundee, he held the chair of chemistry from 1914 until his retirement in 1938. McKenzie was the author or co-author of over 100 research papers. He was elected F.R.S. in 1916. Much of his research in the early part of his career deal with

asymmetric synthesis Enantioselective synthesis, also called asymmetric synthesis, is a form of chemical synthesis. It is defined by IUPAC as "a chemical reaction (or reaction sequence) in which one or more new elements of chirality are formed in a substrate molecul ...

.McKenzie, A. (1904)
CXXVII.—Studies in asymmetric synthesis. I. Reduction of menthyl benzoylformate. II. Action of magnesium alkyl haloids on menthyl benzoylformate.
Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions, 85, 1249–1262.

Selected publications

*with Henry Wren: *with H. Wren:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenzie, Alexander 1869 births 1951 deaths Scientists from Dundee People educated at the High School of Dundee Alumni of the University of St Andrews Scottish chemists British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society