Howard J. Lucas

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Howard Johnson Lucas (born June 7, 1885 in Marietta , Ohio , † June 22, 1963 in Pasadena , California ) was an American chemist . He was an important figure in the early development of physical organic chemistry . His textbook Organic Chemistry was considered a standard work, after which the Lucas probe for differentiating between primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols is named.

Life

Lucas received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1907 and a master's degree from William McPherson there in 1908 . His subsequent studies at the University of Chicago with the goal of a Ph.D. (probably with Julius Stieglitz ) Lucas had to give up in 1910 when his father died and the family got into financial difficulties. Instead, he initially worked in the US Department of Agriculture's food control department before receiving a position as an instructor at Throop College of Technology in 1913 , from the 1920'sCalifornia Institute of Technology (CalTech). In 1915, Lucas became an Associate Professor at CalTech , and in 1940 he was given a full professorship. In 1955 he retired , but was still scientifically active.

Lucas' last publication dates from 1957. Although citations for Lucas are listed there only from 1970, he has an h-index of 21. William Gould Young and Saul Winstein were among his students in the Scopus database .

In 1925 Lucas was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1957 to the National Academy of Sciences . In 1953 he received an honorary doctorate from Ohio State University and the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education from the American Chemical Society (ACS), of which he was a member since 1909. In 1931/32 Lucas was Chairman of the Southern California Section of the ACS.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vera V. Mainz, Gregory S. Girolami: Lucas, Howard Johnson. (PDF; 9 kB) Genealogy Database Entry ( University of Illinois ), 1998, accessed on October 14, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Lucas, Howard J. In: scopus.com. Scopus , accessed October 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Howard Johnson Lucas at academictree.org, accessed October 14, 2019.
  4. ↑ Howard Lucas. In: nasonline.org. National Academy of Sciences , accessed October 14, 2019 .
  5. ^ George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education. In: acs.org. American Chemical Society , accessed October 14, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Lucas, Howard J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lucas, Howard; Lucas, Howard Johnson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Marietta , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1963
Place of death Pasadena , California