David Adriaan van Dorp
{{Short description|Dutch chemist (1915–1995)}}
David 'Davy' Adriaan van Dorp (April 27, 1915, in Amsterdam – February 19, 1995, in Vlaardingen) was a Dutch chemist.
Biography
Van Dorp was born as the son of Hendrik van Dorp and Maria van Dorp, and studied chemistry in Amsterdam where he received a PhD for his thesis Aneurine en gistphosphatase in 1941.
In 1946, while employed by the Dutch company Organon in Oss, Van Dorp and Jozef Ferdinand Arens ('Coco') (1914–2001) published the synthesis for vitamin A acid in the scientific journal Nature.{{cite journal |vauthors=Arens JF, Van Dorp DA |title=Synthesis of some compounds possessing vitamin A activity |journal=Nature |volume=157 |issue= |pages=190 |date=February 1946 |pmid=21015124 |doi=10.1038/157190a0 |url=}} In 1947, they completed the first full synthesis for the complex compound vitamin A, by taking the final step and turning the acid in an alcohol.{{cite journal |vauthors=Van Dorp DA, Arens JF |title=Synthesis of vitamin A aldehyde |journal=Nature |volume=159 |issue=4058 |pages=189 |date=August 1947 |pmid=20256189 |doi=10.1038/160189a0 |url=|doi-access=free }} Their synthesis was not to be used for commercial production, as an alternative route that was published soon after by Otto Isler (1910-1992) and co-workers at (Hoffmann-La Roche) turned out to be much more suited for upscaling.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
Van Dorp joined the Unilever Research Laboratory in Vlaardingen in 1959, and was a key person in the studies regarding the role of arachidonic acid in the metabolic pathway to prostaglandin E2, in close cooperation with Sune K. Bergström who would later receive a Nobel Prize for his work on prostaglandins.
In 1973 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00000006 |title=D.A. van Dorp (1915 - 1995) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |accessdate=27 July 2015}}
References
{{reflist}}
- O. Isler, W. Huber, A. Ronco, M. Kofler, Helv. Chim. Acta 30, 1911-1927 (1947)
- D.A. van Dorp, R.K. Beerthuis, D.H. Nugteren, H. Vonkeman, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 90, 204-207 (1964)
- S. Bergström, H. Danielsson, B. Samuelsson, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 90, 207-210 (1964)
- D.A. van Dorp, My years in lipid research, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society 60, 1645-1648 (1983)
External links
- [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1982/bergstrom-lecture.pdf Bergströms scientific biography]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorp, David Adriaan van}}
Category:20th-century Dutch chemists
Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences