What is Robert Woodward?
{{Infobox scientist | name = Robert Woodward | image= Robert Burns Woodward in 1965.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1917|4|10|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Boston, Massachusetts]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1979|7|8|1917|4|10}} | death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] | citizenship = [[United States]] | nationality = | field = [[Organic chemistry]] | work_institution = [[Harvard University]] | alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = Harry Wasserman, [[Ronald Breslow]], [[Stuart Schreiber]], [[Ken Houk]], [[William R. Roush]] | known_for = Organic syntheses, solution of several important structural puzzles, [[Woodward-Hoffmann rules]] | prizes = [[National Medal of Science]] (1964)<br/> [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1965)<br/> [[Copley Medal]] (1978) }} '''Robert Burns Woodward''' (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an [[United States|American]] [[organic chemistry|organic chemist]].<ref>{{Cite news|pmid=17742608|last=Blout|first=Elkan|year=2001|volume=80|periodical=Biographical Memoirs|pages=825–831|url=http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/rwoodward.html|title=Archived copy|access-date=2011-07-23|archive-date=2012-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014094058/http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/rwoodward.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He made many important discoveries in modern [[organic chemistry]]. He worked on the synthesis and structure of complex natural products. He worked closely with [[Roald Hoffmann]] on the theory of [[chemical reaction]]s. Woodward won the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for 1965. ==Early life and education== Woodward was born in [[Boston, Massachusetts]]. When he was one year old, his father died in the [[influenza pandemic of 1918]]. He was interested in chemistry at an early age. By the time he entered high school, he had already done most of the experiments in [[Ludwig Gattermann]]'s textbook of experimental organic chemistry. In 1928, Woodward asked the Consul-General of the German consulate in Boston, t