Frank Albert Cotton

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Quadruple compound described by Cotton in 1964, the octachloridodirhenate (III) ion

Frank Albert Cotton , called Albert (Al) Cotton (born April 9, 1930 in Philadelphia , † February 20, 2007 ) was an American chemist.

Life

Cotton graduated from Drexel University and Temple University (Bachelor 1951) and in 1955 with a theme about metallocenes with Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard University doctorate . He then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where he became a professor in 1961 (which is a record at MIT to this day). In 1972 he became professor at Texas A&M University , most recently as WT Doherty Welch Foundation Professor and Head of the Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding.

Cotton is known for his work on the chemistry of transition metals , organometallic compounds and metal clusters , crystal field theory , metal-metal bonds and for his textbooks. In 1964 he described the first quadruple bond , the octachloridodirhenate (III) ion (Re2Cl82−). He is the author or co-author of over 1,600 papers, chaired the Inorganic Chemistry Department of the American Chemical Society, and has had over 100 PhD students.

In 1960 he became a Sloan Research Fellow . In 1982 he received the National Medal of Science , 2000 the Wolf Prize and 1998 the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society. He also received the Lavoisier Medal, the Paracelsus Prize, the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences and the Robert A. Welch Prize. In 1990 he received the König Faisal Prize . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , the American Philosophical Society , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1962) and several foreign academies, including the Académie des Sciences and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1979). He had 29 honorary doctorates.

He had been married since 1959 and had two daughters. His death from a head injury from a fall led to investigations as a heart attack was initially assumed and he was in a coma for several months.

The FA Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research from Texas A&M University , which has been awarded annually since 1995, is named in his honor.

Fonts

  • Chemical applications of group theory , Wiley 1963, 3rd edition 1990
  • with Geoffrey Wilkinson Fundamentals of Inorganic Chemistry Wiley 1990 ISBN 3-527-26686-0
  • with Wilkinson: Advanced inorganic chemistry , Wiley 1962, 6th edition 1999
  • with RA Walton: Multiple Bonds Between Metal Atoms , Oxford University Press 1993

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of F. Albert Cotton at academictree.org, accessed on January 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ FA Cotton, CB Harris: The Crystal and Molecular Structure of Dipotassium Octachlorodirhenate (III) Dihydrate, K2 [Re2Cl8] · 2H2O . Inorg. Chem., Vol. 4, 1965, pp. 330-333
  3. ^ List of members . In: Yearbook of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . tape 2007 , no. 1 , 2008, p. 58 .
  4. ^ Investigation of his death, 2007 ( Memento of February 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Cotton, Frank Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 2007