Dyson Perrins Laboratory is a Historic Chemical Landmark

24 September 2004

The Dyson Perrins Laboratory has been recognised for its contribution to organic chemistry and designated a Historic Chemical Landmark by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

A plaque honouring the Dyson Perrins Laboratory as a major centre for organic chemistry from 1916-2003 was presented to the Vice-Chancellor Sir Colin Lucas by Dr David Giachardi, Chief Executive of the RSC at a ceremony on 24 September.

Historic Chemical Landmarks are the RSC’s official recognition of historical sites around the UK where important chemical breakthroughs have been made and are an initiative to commemorate, emphasise and awaken public interest in historic developments in the chemical sciences. Other places that have been awarded the status include King’s College, London for the discovery of the structure of DNA and the University of Nottingham for the work of Professor Frederic S Kipping into the development of silicon polymers.

The Dyson Perrins Laboratory was built with a donation from Charles William Dyson Perrins, heir to the Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce fortune. Over the next 90 years it housed the University’s Organic Chemistry Department and was the site of many scientific advances, including Sir Robert Robinson’s work on natural products, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1947.

Work in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory has now moved into the state of the art new research laboratory on South Parks Road, which was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in February this year. This time around it was harder to find a philanthropist like Dyson Perrins to fund the project. ‘The lack of interest demonstrated by firms approached in the programme which raised £64.5 million for the successor laboratory is a matter that should be addressed urgently,’ said Professor Graham Richards, Chairman of Chemistry. ‘We received only a quarter of a million pounds from the corporate sector. The bulk of the money came from public sources and from an innovative venture with a city bank. This diffidence is not just shocking – it is a sad state of affairs about which the companies in the UK should be concerned.’