Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer
Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (born January 6, 1914 in Pomona , California , † December 26, 1997 in Berkeley , California) was an American theoretical chemist ( physical chemistry ).
Pitzer studied at Caltech with a bachelor's degree in 1935 and at the University of California, Berkeley , where he received his doctorate in 1937. He was then an instructor at Berkeley, assistant professor in 1939, associate professor in 1942 and professor of physical chemistry in 1945. In addition, he was research director at the Maryland Research Laboratory near Washington DC from 1943 to 1945 and in 1947 he became research director of the Atomic Energy Commission . He was a professor at Rice University (1961), Stanford University (1968) and again in 1971 at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1961 to 1968 he was President of Rice University, from 1969 to 1971 he held this post at Stanford University.
He studied the thermodynamic properties of organic molecules and developed formulas for calculating the entropy and specific heat of hydrocarbons for the American Petroleum Institute (1943). The Pitzer stress (ring stress in cycloalkanes) is named after him. The Pitzer equations describe the behavior of ions in water. In 1945 he published a theory of hydrogen boride compounds and a 1937 paper on rotational orientation in a molecule for conformational analysis.
In 1949 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1950 he received the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry , the National Medal of Science and the Priestley Medal . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , the American Philosophical Society (1954) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1958).
literature
- Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 346
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Albert Gossauer: Structure and reactivity of biomolecules. Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zurich, 2006, p. 85, ISBN 978-3-906390-29-1 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pitzer, Kenneth Sanborn |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist, professor of organic chemistry |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pomona , California , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 26, 1997 |
| Place of death | Berkeley , California , United States |