Jack Halpern

Jack Halpern (born January 19, 1925 in Poland , † January 31, 2018 in Chicago ) was an American chemist and professor of inorganic chemistry .

life and work

Jack Halpern was born in Poland and moved to Canada in 1929 . He studied at McGill University with a bachelor's degree in 1946 and a doctorate in 1949 under Carl A. Winkler with the thesis Kinetic studies in solution and in the solid phase. : Pt. I. The cis-trans isomerization of azobenzene in solution. Pt. II. The thermal decomposition of styrene-butadiene popcorn polymer . 1959/50 he was at the University of Manchester and 1959/60 at the University of Cambridge . From 1950 he was at the University of British Columbia , first as an instructor and later as a professor. In 1962 he went from there to the USA and became a professor at the University of Chicago , where he was Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor from 1971 . In 1966/67 he was visiting professor at Harvard University and again in 1991 as RB Woodward visiting professor . In 1981 he was visiting scholar at the University of Kyoto , 1978 at the University of Copenhagen , 1969 at Caltech , at the University of Minnesota (1962) and in 1981/82 at the University of Sheffield .

He dealt with organometallic complexes and homogeneous catalysis. In the laudation for the Welch Prize, his contributions to the reaction mechanisms of inorganic chemistry and the complex reactions of organometallic compounds are highlighted and his contributions to the understanding of homogeneous catalysis in solution.

honors and awards

Halpern was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , of which he was Vice President from 1993, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1967), the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science . He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1974) and an honorary member of the Royal Chemical Society. He was an honorary doctor of the University of British Columbia and McGill University and has been an "External Scientific Member" of the Max Planck Society since 1983 .

Halpern was a consultant at Monsanto and the Argonne National Laboratory . Halpern was editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society . From 1959 to 1963 he was a Sloan Research Fellow . In 1994 he received the Welch Award in Chemistry and in 1986 the Willard Gibbs Medal . He received the Organometallic Chemistry Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 1995 and their Inorganic Chemistry Award in 1968 and 1985. In 1988 he received the August Wilhelm von Hofmann medal from the Society of German Chemists and in 1991, 1992 the Paracelsus Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society and he received the Chemical Pioneer Award. In 1977 he received the Humboldt Research Award and in 1976 the Catalysis Award of the Chemical Society of London.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical data from American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2005
2. ↑ Jack Halpern. In: Chicago Tribune. Legacy.com, February 2017, accessed February 3, 2018 . 
3. ↑ biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Jack Halpern at academictree.org, accessed on February 8 2018th
4. ↑ Laudation Welch Preis ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Book of Members ( PDF ). Retrieved April 2, 2016