co-worked and co-authored with J. W. Cook and A. I. Scott, he published the first synthesis of the quasi-aromatic compound tropolone and the thujaplicin natural products which contained this unusual ring system. His interest in acetylenes led him to study macrocyclic compounds containing this functional group, and bridged ring systems that could be derived from them. Before the first synthesis by Ralph Raphael, thujaplicins had been naturally isolated from Chamaecyparis taiwanensis by Tetsuo Nozoe in 1936 (the β-isomer; hinokitiol), and from Thuja plicata independently by Holger Erdtman in 1948 (all three isomers; α-, β- and γ-thujaplicins). Honours, awards and service to the scientific community In 1958 Raphael was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Monteath Robertson, James Norman Davidson, Robert Campbell Garry, and Guido Pontecorvo. In 1962 he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London; he was the Davy Medalist for the latter in 1981. He was appointed a CBE in the Honours list of June 1982. Raphael received Honorary Doctorates from his alma mater Imperial College, in 1991, Stirling University in 1982, the University of East Anglia in 1986, and Queen's University Belfast in 1989, Among his many awards and service to learned bodies were: Meldola Medal and Prize (1948) Tilden Medal (1960) Vice-President of the Chemical Society, London (1967-1970) Chemistry Committee Member of SRC (1968) Pedler Award (1973) Ciba-Geigy Sponsored Award for Synthetic Chemistry (1975) Member of the Council of the Royal Society (1975-1977) President of the Perkin Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1979-1981) Visiting Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1981) Honorary membership of the Royal Irish Academy (1987) Visiting Professor, University of Hong Kong (1989) Visiting Professor, Université of Haute Alsace (1990) Personal life In 1944 Raphael married Prudence Maguerire Anne née Gaffikin, who was a professional violin and viola player. They had a son, Tony, and a daughter, Sonia. By 1998 there were two grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Ralph Raphael was keenly interested in the visual and performing arts, becoming a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Gallery in 1986; his favourite pastime was contract bridge. Raphael died of ischaemic heart disease, in Cambridge on 27 April 1998. Further reading References 1921 births 1998 deaths British chemists Organic chemists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British Jews Jewish scientists Academics of the University of