Sir Richard Oswald Chandler Norman, KBE FRS (April 27, 1932 – June 6, 1993) was a British chemist.[1]
Norman was born in Norbury, London. His father Oswald managed a bank in the area. Norman received his primary education at St Paul's School, London. He graduated with a first in chemistry from Balliol College, Oxford in 1955, and the following year joined Merton College, Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow, completing his DPhil in 1957.[2] His doctoral thesis investigated using continuous flow mixing techniques to study rapid free radical reactions. He was elected as a Fellow of Merton College in 1958, lecturing, tutoring and building up a research team.
In 1965 Norman moved to the University of York to create a new chemistry department, where he gained a reputation for the study of organic reactions. In 1987 he returned to Oxford as Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, where he remained until his death.
He married Jennifer Margaret Tope in 1982; they had no children. He died in Oxford in 1993; his body was cremated at Oxford.