Professor Emeritus Howard Whitlock, age 80, died Jan. 27, 2017. He attended the University of Maryland and received a degree in chemistry in 1957. He became a graduate student in organic chemistry at the UW-Madison, studying with Professor William Johnson. He received his Ph.D. in 1961, with a thesis on “Approaches to the Synthesis of the Alkaloid Veratramine.” Shortly thereafter, Whitlock began his 50-year academic career as a professor of chemistry at UW-Madison.
He loved every aspect of organic chemistry and published more than 90 academic publications. When desktop computers became available, he developed unique applications that could be used in research. The creation of WIMP, a program useful for drawing organic molecules, led to a close friendship with Dr. Alfred Bader and the Aldrich Chemical Co. He later tackled the complex problems of computerized organic synthesis.
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