| Bob Briggs | |
| Birth Name: | Lindsay Heathcote Briggs |
| Birth Date: | 3 January 1905 |
| Birth Place: | Hastings, New Zealand |
| Death Place: | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Fields: | Organic chemistry |
| Workplaces: | University of Auckland |
| Thesis Year: | 1932 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Robert Robinson |
| Known For: | Contribution to the structure of strychnine; chemistry of New Zealand native plants |
| Awards: | Hector Medal (1943) |
Lindsay Heathcote "Bob" Briggs (3 January 1905 – 16 January 1975) was a New Zealand organic chemist. His research focused on "the nature and constitution of chemical compounds to be found in New Zealand native flora".[1]
Born in Hastings in 1905,[2] Briggs was educated at Hastings District High School and Auckland Grammar School.[3]
After graduating from Auckland University College with a Master of Science with second-class honours in 1928,[4] he received funding to research manuka oil the following year,[5] and undertook independent research at Massey Agricultural College from 1929 to 1930. He became a Fellow of the Chemical Society in London in 1929.
He then went to the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at Oxford University for a PhD under Robert Robinson, investigating the chemical structure of strychnine.[2] He was awarded his doctorate in 1932 and returned to Auckland, where he was appointed as a lecturer in organic chemistry in 1933,[3] and remained a member of their staff until his death.
In 1941 he was awarded a DSc from Auckland University College.[4] He was a member of the Auckland Institute and Museum, and was its President from 1952 to 1955. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1942[6] and served as its president from 1956 to 1958.[7] He was a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, received the ICI Prize and Medal in 1949,[8] and became its president in 1959. He was awarded the Hector Medal by the society in 1943.[9] In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.[10] He was also president of the Auckland Science Teachers Association and the Auckland Referees Association.
He was also an active member of the Auckland University field club.[11]