Robert B. Woodward's Birth Card: The Jack of Diamonds

In the record

Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an American organic chemist, who is considered by many to be the preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century. The birth-card coordinate for April 10 is the Jack of Diamonds — a calendar position, not a forecast of the 1965 Chemistry prize.

Nobel Prize record

• 1965 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry — for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis

The Jack of Diamonds coordinate

Robert B. Woodward's birthday maps to the Jack of Diamonds (The Successful Messenger). Card Blueprints treats that as a 365-day coordinate: solar value = 55 − (2 × month + day), and the year is unused. It is not a prediction about a Nobel Prize and not a verdict on Robert B. Woodward. The card's own language, quoted as system copy rather than biography: You try a new approach to value and you finish enough of it to know if it works.

Live Jack of Diamonds meaning page

Robert B. Woodward in the public record

Through his career, he made many key contributions to the subject, especially in the synthesis of complex natural products and the determination of their molecular structure. He worked closely with Roald Hoffmann on theoretical studies of chemical reactions, and also with Albert Eschenmoser. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965 “for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis.” Woodward was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1917. He was the son of Margaret Burns (an immigrant from Scotland who claimed to be a descendant of the poet, Robert Burns) and her husband, Arthur Chester Woodward, himself the son of Roxbury apothecary, Harlow Elliot Woodward. His father was one of the many victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic. From a very early age, Woodward was attracted to and engaged in private study of chemistry while he attended a public primary school, and then Quincy High School, in Quincy, Massachusetts. By the time he entered high school, he had already managed to perform most of the experiments in Ludwig Gattermann's then widely used organic chemistry textbook of experimental organic chemistry. In 1928, Woodward contacted the Consul-General of the German consulate in Boston (Baron von Tippelskirch), and through him, managed to obtain copies of a few original papers published in German journals.

Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article Robert Burns Woodward (CC BY-SA 4.0). No biographical facts were written for this page beyond that article.

Where the record meets the Jack of Clubs

A card is a calendar coordinate, not a cause. What follows sets one line of the card's own published language beside one sentence of the sourced record, paired by a documented rule. It is a resemblance offered for the reader to weigh — not a claim about Robert B. Woodward, and not a forecast of a Nobel Prize.

Ability to inspire intellectual breakthroughs

He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965 “for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis.” Woodward was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1917.

Paired on the mind and communication — the domain ♣ governs in this system. Markers in the record: chemistry.

Also on the record

1. Later, in his Cope lecture, he recalled how he had been fascinated when, among these papers, he chanced upon Diels and Alder's original communication about the Diels–Alder reaction.
2. Throughout his career, Woodward was to repeatedly and powerfully use and investigate this reaction, both in theoretical and experimental ways.
3. In 1933, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but neglected his formal studies to the extent that he was excluded at the end of the 1934 fall term.
4. MIT readmitted him in the 1935 fall term, and by 1936 he had received the Bachelor of Science degree.

Other laureates with this card

• André Lwoff — 1965 Physiology or Medicine
• Bernardo Houssay — 1947 Physiology or Medicine
• C.T.R. Wilson — 1927 Physics
• Edwin G. Krebs — 1992 Physiology or Medicine
• Eugene F. Fama — 2013 Economic Sciences
• Ferdinand Braun — 1909 Physics
• Friedrich von Hayek — 1974 Economic Sciences
• Gerard Debreu — 1983 Economic Sciences
• H. Robert Horvitz — 2002 Physiology or Medicine
• Heinrich Rohrer — 1986 Physics
• Henry Dunant — 1901 Peace
• Herbert A. Hauptman — 1985 Chemistry
• 8 more laureates share this card.

FAQ

What is Robert B. Woodward's birth card?

The Jack of Diamonds. April 10 maps to that card through the public Card Blueprints formula. The year of birth is not used.

Does a birth card predict a Nobel Prize?

No. These pages are coordinates, not fortune-telling. A birth card names a calendar day in a 52-card year. It does not forecast prizes, character, or fate.

Where do Robert B. Woodward's dates come from?

Birth date 1917-04-10 is the Nobel Prize API v2.1 day-precision date, verified against Wikidata P569 (CC0, day precision, Gregorian preferred). The two sources match. Year-only Nobel dates and Nobel↔Wikidata conflicts are dropped, not guessed. Page hooks and evidence come from the Wikipedia REST summary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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