Memoir

Marshall Gates

University of Rochester

September 25, 1915 - October 3, 2003


Scientific Discipline: Chemistry
Membership Type:
Member (elected 1958)

Marshall Gates constructed one of the most elegant syntheses in organic chemistry. In 1952 he published the first complete synthesis of morphine. Not only did he provide a complete mechanistic approach but he also elucidated the structures of each intermediate compound and created the Gates Intermediate, which involved the crucial step of changing the position of just one component of the molecule. From this research stemmed more natural product syntheses as he searched for a nonaddictive form of the painkiller.

Gates earned his undergraduate degree from Rice University and his master’s degree and PhD from Harvard University. He began teaching at Bryn Mawr College in 1941 and while there also served on the National Defense Council. He accepted a position at the University of Rochester in 1949 and remained there until he retired in 1981. From 1949 to 1969 he was the editor in chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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