Distinguished Fellowship Award

Inaugurated in 1996, this distinguished Fellowship for RACI members is the recognition of highly distinguished contributions to the chemistry profession in academia, government or industry and the RACI.

This is awarded by the Board to a RACI member on or very close to, retirement from their professional roles.

PROFESSOR JOHN BREMNER

A distinguished organic chemist who has made major contributions to the areas of synthetic, medicinal and heterocyclic chemistry

Professor John Bremner FRACI CChem graduated with a BSc from the University of Western Australia and PhD from the Australian National University. He undertook postdoctoral research at Harvard University and was then appointed to the University of Tasmania, where he was Head of Department 1990–1. He then moved to the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Wollongong, where he was Head of Department 1994–2000 and Director of the Institute for Biomolecular Science 2001–04. During this time Professor Bremner designed, developed and implemented the RACI-accredited Bachelor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Wollongong, a course that has since been duplicated at other tertiary institutions in Australia.

Professor John Bremner is a distinguished organic chemist who has made major contributions to the areas of synthetic, medicinal and heterocyclic chemistry. His many contributions can be summarised in the following four different areas of organic chemistry:

• the discovery of new alkaloids, their synthesis and reactions.
• the development of new photochemical reactions of use in synthesis and also in the degradation of complex natural products.
• the reactions of isoquinoline and other derivatives to make many new medium-sized heterocyclic rings.
• the design, development and evaluation of new selective heterocyclic medicinal agents.

These contributions have been manifest through the publication of over 200 research papers and the granting of some eight patents. He has received the RACI’s 2001 Adrien Albert Award and been admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). Professor Bremner has also provided broad and extraordinary service to the chemistry community over many years. In particular, he has served with distinction as a member of the Australian Research Council’s Chemical Sciences Panel for a number of years and chaired it in 1995. He was a member of the Pharmaceutical Sub-committee of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee for a decade from 1995, and President of the NSW Conference on Heterocyclic Chemistry in 1991. In addition, he has served as a member of the editorial advisory boards of various prestigious journals and has been a consultant for various companies. Within the educational sphere, he chaired the joint RACI–AAS committee on chemistry that made the initial submission to the West Review into Higher Education. In addition, he assisted in the training of a large group of teachers of chemistry from the Philippines.

The Distinguished Fellowship Award is a most fitting recognition of Professor Bremner’s highly distinguished contribution to chemistry and the RACI, but it also would be greeted with enthusiasm by his peers among the wider chemical community.