The Baddiley Lecture

Professor Sir James Baddiley

  • One of the most eminent science alumni of Newcastle University
  • Read chemistry at Manchester University
  • PhD at Manchester University with Alexander Todd
  • Moved to Cambridge with A Todd (1944) to work on nucleotide and nucleoside synthesis; first structurally definitive chemical synthesis of ATP
  • Post-doctoral work in Stockholm, London and Harvard
  • Chair of Organic Chemistry (later, Chemical Microbiology), Newcastle (1956)
  • Major research on the structures of several nucleotide co-enzymes, notably determining the structure of co-enzyme A
  • Seminal contribution: discovery and naming of teichoic acids and lipoteichoic acids (major constituents of many bacterial walls)
  • Semi-retirement in Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge (1980)
  • Major review on teichoic acids as recently as 2003 (Neuhaus & Baddiley, 2003)

Prof Sir Jim Baddiley’s scientific contributions were marked by many awards. All of the following came during his time at Newcastle.

  • Fellow of the Royal Society (1961)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1963)
  • Leeuwenhoek Lectureship of the Royal Society (1967)
  • Davy Medal of the Royal Society (1974)
  • Knighthood (1977)

These pages are maintained by Amanda Temby and Birgit Schaffhauser. If you have any amendments or suggestions please contact amanda.temby@ncl.ac.uk or birgit.schaffhauser@ncl.ac.uk