Dedication to Desmond Joseph Brown

Abstract

This issue of Aust. J. Chem. is dedicated to Desmond Joseph Brown, formerly of the JohnCurtin School ofMedical Research, ANU, whom we always referred to as ‘Des’. An honorary member of the RACI and an eminent organic chemist who influenced the careers of many chemists, Des was a graduate of the University of Sydney and was awarded Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees by the University of London. His detailed obituary has been published in Chemistry in Australia, July 2014, pp. 28–29. Des’s career (1942–1985) in academic organic chemical research was almost entirely in the field of heterocyclic chemistry, with emphasis in medicinal chemistry. His interest in these fields began during a year of study in Professor Adrien Albert’s ChemotherapyUnit at the University of Sydney. He thenwent to Imperial College, University of London, where he carried out research on heterocyclic analgesics for his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Dr A. H. Cook and Professor Ian Heilbron. This was followed by a year at University College, University of London, working on pyrimidine and pteridine research. He was then appointed to the Department of Medical Chemistry in the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at the newly establishedAustralianNational University (ANU), where Adrien Albert had the foundation Chair. He assisted Professor Albert in the design of the building in Canberra, which was completed in 1956, and in establishing the department. Des was Professor Albert’s right-hand man until Professor Albert’s retirement in 1972, and later was appointed head of the Medical Chemistry Group in the JCSMRuntil his retirement at the end of 1985. He then became a Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Chemistry (RSC, ANU)where hewas providedwith an office and facilities for writing books (1986 to 2012). The Department of Medical Chemistry consisted of a fourstorey wing of the JCSMR building in which a very large space that spanned three storeyswas designated ‘TheHighLaboratory’. Des was in charge of this area which was used for very large scale syntheses and when the purification of large quantities of chemicals was required. This laboratory was converted to provide more laboratory space to accommodate new areas of research after 1972. Des’s research was mainly in the areas of pyrimidine, purine, and pteridine chemistry, substances that have central biological importance. He published most of his work in several series of papers, but only the first and the last parts of the series are referenced here. These include Improved Syntheses in the Pyrimidine Series (six parts), Simple Pyrimidines (17 parts), PyrimidineReactions (27 parts),TheDimrothRearrangement (18 parts), Isomerizations Akin to the Dimroth Rearrangement (five parts), Purine Studies (19 parts), Pteridine Studies (12 parts), Aza-analogues of Pteridines (eight parts), Triazolopteridines (three parts), and Naphthimidazoles (three parts). Other papers that he wrote did not belong to any series and stood alone. These included papers on triand tetrazolopurinones, a new route to pyrazolo[2,4-b] pyrazine, triazolopyrimidines, and triazolopurines, among several others. An important aspect of Des’s research was the study of the physico-chemical properties of many of the compounds that he, his students, and co-workers prepared. The studies specifically included the ionisation constants of the substances as well as the electronic spectra of the neutral and ionic species, photoelectron spectra of pteridines, and C NMR of tautomerism in N-heterocycles. Together with Adrien Albert and their co-workers, the department had amassed a tremendous amount of physico-chemical data which is now indispensible in the field ofmedicinal chemistry. The amount of data collected and published nowmakes it possible to predict with some degree of accuracy the dissociation constants of ionisable drugs,