Frederick Challenger was born in 1887 and was educated at Derby Technical College and University College Nottingham. He was awarded a University of London B.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 1907. Challenger undertook research with Professor F.S. Kipping at University College Nottingham from 1908 to 1910. He then studied at Gottingen, Germany, under Professor O. Wallach, who won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1910. Challenger was awarded his doctorate from Gottingen in 1912 and in the same year became assistant lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. His career subsequently took him to the University of Manchester (1915), and then Leeds University where he became Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1930. On his retirement in 1953 he returned to Nottingham, where he retained active contacts in the academic world. He died in 1983.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor Frederick Challenger (1887-1983), Professor of Chemistry at Leeds University, 1908-1978, 1908-1978, (The University of Nottingham)
