Christopher Kelk Ingold

Commemorative plaque at University College London

Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold (born October 28, 1893 in London , † December 8, 1970 in Edgware ) was a British chemist.

Ingold began his scientific studies in 1913 at Hartley University in Southampton , but later moved to Imperial College London , where he received his doctorate in 1921 at Jocelyn Field Thorpe and worked as a lecturer in organic chemistry for the following years . In 1924 he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Leeds . In 1930 he went back to London, where he was head of the chemistry department at University College London (UCL) from 1937 to 1961 .

Ingold made significant contributions to the description, classification and prediction of organic reactions based on the behavior of the electrons in the reacting molecules . Among other things, he developed and expanded concepts for mesomerism , nucleophilic substitution and elimination reactions . His textbook Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry , published in 1953, is considered the cornerstone of organic chemistry. In addition, together with Robert Sidney Cahn and Vladimir Prelog, Ingold developed the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Convention (CIP Convention) for the designation of complex organic molecules.

In 1924 he was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society , which awarded him the Davy Medal in 1946 and the Royal Medal in 1952 . In 1958 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He was married to the chemist Hilda Usherwood, with whom he also worked. His son Keith U. Ingold is a well-known chemist in Canada.

Fonts

• Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry. Cornell University Press, 1953.
• Principles of an Electronic Theory of Organic Reactions. Chemical Reviews, Vol. 15, 1934, pp. 238-274.

Web links

• Portrait Michigan State University (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Christopher K. Ingold at academictree.org, accessed on February 13, 2018.