Sir Derek H.R. Barton; Nobel-Winning Chemist

Sir Derek H.R. Barton, 79, who won the 1969 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Barton was honored as a Nobel laureate for his research on conformational chemistry, which changed the two-dimensional view of chemical structure by adding a third dimension. The research altered the way chemists think about the shape and reactivity of molecules. Barton, the author of more than 1,000 research articles, was a professor of chemistry at Texas A&M; University, where he worked on reactions involving the oxidation of hydrocarbons. A native of Kent, England, Barton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1972. In College Station, Texas, on Monday of an apparent heart attack.