Robert Edward Corbett

Robert Edward Corbett (13 June 1923 – 3 February 2018) was a New Zealand organic chemist. He is noted for his contribution to natural product chemistry through the isolation and structural elucidation of compounds from New Zealand native plants.

Early life and education Born on 13 June 1923, Corbett was the son of Walter Corbett and Margaret Whitehead Corbett (née Robertson). He studied at the University of Otago, graduating Master of Science with first-class honours in chemistry in 1945. Corbett later undertook doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge under Alexander Todd on the structures of some of the metabolites—puberulic acid, puberulonic acid, and stipitatic acid—of Penicillium species. He showed that they contain the tropolone skeleton,

In 1949, Corbett married Enid Mary Carter in Cambridge, England, and they went on to have two children.

Academic and research career In 1945, Corbett was appointed as a lecturer in chemistry at Otago. After returning from Cambridge in 1950, When he retired in 1983, he was accorded the title of professor emeritus. Corbett also investigated extractives from barks, leaves, heartwoods and lichens, and determined the structures of many new, and derivatives of known, di-, tri- and sesquiterpenoids. He was also a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.

Selected publications