Robert Sidney Cahn

Robert Sidney Cahn (9 June 1899 – 15 June 1981) was a British chemist, best known for his contributions to chemical nomenclature and stereochemistry, particularly by the Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules, which he proposed in 1956 with Christopher Kelk Ingold and Vladimir Prelog.^[1] Cahn was the first to report the structure of Cannabinol (CBN) found in Cannabis in the early 1930s.^[2][3]

Cahn was born in Hampstead, London. He became a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry^[4] and was editor of the Journal of the Chemical Society from 1949 until 1963, and he remained with the Society as Director of Publications Research until his retirement in 1965.^[5]