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Dr GT Young OBE, Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College,
member of the Oxford Chemistry Department (19471982).
We are sad to report that Geoffrey Young died at home in
Oxford on 24 May 2014, aged 98. Geoffrey was a Fellow
of Jesus 1947-1982 (Vice-Principal 1969-1972, Acting
Principal 1973-1977); in the University he was Lecturer in
Organic Chemistry 1950-1970, and Aldrichian Praelector
in Chemistry 1970-1982. He was a pioneer in peptide
chemistry
Geoffrey was trained at Bristol
in carbohydrate chemistry.
After wartime work in the
transatlantic scientific liaison
over explosives, he turned to
amino acids and peptides, and
made several fundamental
contributions, especially to the
understanding of racemization
in peptide synthesis – still a
critical issue in the chemical
synthesis of peptides and
proteins – and how to plan to
avoid or minimize it. In 1958 he
was the British representative
at the first small meeting of
Geoffrey Young with Ewart Jones in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory
photograph in 1977
European peptide chemists in Prague, and was a member
of an informal committee organising subsequent symposia
from which the present international network of Peptide
Societies has evolved. He was the prime mover in the
creation of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Peptide and
Protein Group, and its first Secretary; and he was the first
Senior Reporter for the influential Chemical Society’s
Specialist Periodical Reports in the area. When he retired
from the Department in 1982, he was a leading figure in
European peptide science, and in the following decade he
gave continued leadership; when the European Peptide
Society was formalized he wrote its constitution and was
its first Chairman.
He was married to Baroness Janet Young, first woman
Leader of the House of Lords and the only woman invited
into her cabinet by Margaret Thatcher. He was a gentle
man: although in the early days critical of RB Merrifield’s
pioneering solid phase approach, he subsequently
became good friends with Merrifield.
Geoffrey was, to his surprise, appointed OBE in 1982; in
retrospect this seems a rather modest public
acknowledgment of his achievements. His students loved
him and he was universally respected among his peers.