John W. Cornforth

John Cornforth was an Australian chemist and university teacher specializing in organic chemistry. Born in Sydney in 1917, he was educated at the University of Sydney and St Catherine's College, University of Oxford. He served as a student of Robert Robinson and later worked at the University of Warwick and the University of Sussex.

Cornforth received several awards, including the Copley Medal, the Corday-Morgan Prize, and the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Australian Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

He was married to Rita Harradence and resided in Brighton, where he died in 2013. Cornforth was deaf and spoke English. His name in his native language is John Warcup 'Kappa' Cornforth.