In Memoriam—Alexander Lawson: Visionary Pioneer in Cheminformatics

doi:10.1515/ci-2021-0114

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In Memoriam—Alexander Lawson: Visionary Pioneer in Cheminformatics

Published/Copyright: January 22, 2021

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 43 Issue 1

Abstract

Alexander Lawson (20 Oct 1944 - 23 Feb 2020), known to his friends and peers as “Sandy,” passed away in early 2020. He is recognized as a pioneer and far-sighted visionary in the fields of chemical structure handling, database searching, chemical nomenclature, reading machines, and the linking of text and structural information.

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Sandy went on to earn his BSc in Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews (1966), a PhD in Organic Chemistry (Physical Organic) and a D.I.C. from Imperial College, London. He did post-graduate work at the Universities of Kent and Mainz, and was an extramural professor at the latter. He is probably most-associated with “Beilstein” which he joined in the early 1980’s, initially working with the Beilstein Handbook [1] and ultimately being instrumental in transforming it into an electronic version, the Beilstein Database. The database was first was released in 1988 on STN and Sandy developed the Lawson Number [2] and the Structure and Reference Analyzer (SANDRA) [3] program as aids for searching the database in its early years. The Beilstein Database was further developed by Lawson into the first large in-house chemistry database system fueled by the powerful CrossFire search engine and interface. It was ultimately acquired by Elsevier in 2007 where Sandy, serving as R&D Director, was heavily involved in the consolidation of the Beilstein, Gmelin, and Patent Chemistry Databases into a unified database with a modern and user-friendly interface, Reaxys [4].

Even after his formal retirement, Sandy continued to focus on reaction classifications and similarity searching, leading to enhancement and some of the most powerful features available today on Reaxys.

Sandy had a deep and long-standing interest in chemical nomenclature and was active on the IUPAC Committee for Printed and Electronic Publications (CPEP, now CPCDS) as well as in IUPAC’s Division on Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation (Division VIII). He developed the first commercial program, AutoNom, [5] for the generation of systematic IUPAC names from structures.

Sandy was recognized many times for his significant contributions to cheminformatics. He was awarded the Gold Medal (1985, for SANDRA), the Irvine Medal (1966), Forrester Prize (1966), EuroCase IT Prizewinner (1997, for CrossFire), the CSA Trust Mike Lynch Award (2008), and the Herman Skolnik Award from the Division of Chemical Information (CNIF), ACS (2011, for outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science and related disciplines).

Phil Mc Hale, who was Chair of CINF’s Award Committee in 2011, said of Sandy: “Sandy Lawson is among the handful of truly excellent cheminformatics scientists at work today, and is widely and thoroughly respected. He is a gentleman’s scientist with a tremendous understanding of chemistry and computers. He embodies the best qualities of cheminformatics and is truly worthy of this award.”

Indeed his presence and vision will be greatly missed.

References (all accessed 20 Sep 2020)

1. http://organica1.org/seminario/beilstein.pdfSearch in Google Scholar

2. https://depth-first.com/articles/2010/09/28/a-brief-introduction-to-lawson-numbers/Search in Google Scholar

3. http://www.hellers.com/steve/resume/p102.html,Search in Google Scholar

4. n-gb/solutions/reaxysSearch in Google Scholar

5. http://akosgmbh.de/Archive/autonom.htmSearch in Google Scholar

Online erschienen: 2021-01-22

Erschienen im Druck: 2021-01-01

©2021 IUPAC & De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0114