George C. Pimentel

George Claude Pimentel (born May 2, 1922 in California - † June 18, 1989 ) was an American chemist, particularly known for his pioneering work on chemical lasers .

Pimentel grew up as the son of French parents in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Los Angeles and, after graduating from high school in 1939, studied chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles (graduated in 1943). During the Second World War he was briefly in the Manhattan Project in Berkeley , but then - after he recognized the goals of the research - preferred to serve in the US Navy on a submarine. After the war he continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley , and received his doctorate in 1949 under Kenneth S. Pitzer . He stayed at Berkeley for the rest of his career, where he was a professor of chemistry. He was director of the Laboratory of Chemical Dynamics and Associate Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory .

In the 1950s he developed the matrix isolation technique to capture free radicals (for example by incorporating them into a matrix of solid noble gases at low temperatures), which could then be examined spectroscopically. He developed methods of infrared spectroscopy and applied them, among other things, to the study of hydrogen bonds , on which he wrote a standard work with McClellan.

Pimentel is best known for developing the first chemical laser (that is, lasers that derive their energy from chemical reactions) in the 1960s.

In 1960 he and others published a widely used high school textbook on chemistry (Chemistry - an experimental science).

He had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1966 , of which he was Deputy Director from 1977 to 1980. In 1986 he published their report on Opportunities in Chemistry ( Pimentel Report ). In 1968 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1985 of the American Philosophical Society . In 1986 he was President of the American Chemical Society . In 1985 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

His laboratory built infrared spectrometers for the Mars missions Mariner 6 and 7 and was involved in evaluating the measurement results. In 1967 he applied as a scientist for NASA's astronaut training and successfully completed the tests, but was not accepted because of a minor visual defect.

In 1982 he received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the National Medal of Science in 1985 , the Priestley Medal in 1989 , the Franklin Medal in 1985 and the Welch Award in 1986 . In 1959 he received the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry . In 1985 he was awarded the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Memorial Medal by the Society of German Chemists .

The American Chemical Society's George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education is named after him.

Fonts

• George C. Pimentel (Editor): Chemistry: An Experimental Science . WH Freeman & Co, 1963, ISBN 978-0-7167-0002-9 . , Archives
  • Also: Teachers Guide 1963 (Archive)
• AL McClellan, George C. Pimentel: Hydrogen Bond . WHFreeman & Co Ltd, 1960, ISBN 978-0-7167-0113-2 .
• with Richard D. Spratley: To understand chemical thermodynamics. An introduction to their way of thinking , Springer 1979 (English original: Understanding Chemical Thermodynamics , Holden-Day 1969)
• with Richard D. Spratley: Chemical bonding clarified through quantum mechanics , Holden-Day 1969

Web links

• Website about Pimentel from his wife Jeanne Pimentel
• Biographical Memoirs National Academy of Sciences, by C. Bradley Moore, 2007, pdf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ JVA Kasper, GC Pimentel: HCl Chemical laser . In: Physical Review Letters . tape 14 , no. 10 , 1965, p. 352-354 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.14.352 .
2. ↑ JVA Kasper, GC Pimentel: Atomic Iodine Laser Photodissociation . In: Applied Physics Letters . tape 5 , no. 11 , 1964, pp. 231-233 , doi : 10.1063 / 1.1723603 .
3. ^ KL Kompa, GC Pimentel: Hydrofluoric Acid Chemical Laser . In: The Journal of Chemical Physics . tape 47 , no. 2 , 1967, p. 857-858 , doi : 10.1063 / 1.1711963 .