Robert Grubbs

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Robert Grubbs (2009)

Robert Howard Grubbs (born February 27, 1942 in Calvert City , Kentucky , † December 19, 2021 ) was an American chemist and Nobel Prize winner . Grubbs was most recently a professor at the California Institute of Technology .

Life

Grubbs studied at the University of Florida in Gainesville , where he did his Bachelor of Science in 1963. Two years later he received his master’s degree and finally he did his doctorate in 1968 at Columbia University in New York with Ronald Breslow with the thesis I. Derivatives of cyclobutadienes. II. Studies of Cyclooctatetraene Iron Tricarbonyl .

After graduating, he went to Stanford University for a year and then to Michigan State University in East Lansing . He was initially an assistant professor and stayed there until 1978. In 1974 he became a Sloan Research Fellow . Since 1978 he was Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena . Since 1990 he has held the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Chair.

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Grubbs researched mainly in the field of organometallic chemistry and synthetic chemistry, in particular on catalysts . In 1992 he developed a catalyst for olefin metathesis for the polymerization of cyclic hydrocarbons . This so-called Grubbs catalyst is an improvement on the catalyst developed by Richard R. Schrock two years earlier, so that it was now possible to carry out the olefin metathesis even without perfect laboratory conditions. He also conducted research in the field of ring-opening metathesis polymerizations . His name is also associated with an apparatus that allows the oxygen-free and water-free solvents required for these investigations without the otherwise usual distillation and highly reactive additives such as. B. to generate alkali metals .

In 1989 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1994 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1995 Grubbs received the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry , in 2000 the Herman F. Mark Division of Polymer Chemistry Award , 2003 the Tetrahedron Award , 2005 the Paul Karrer Medal and 2009 the ACS Award for Creative Invention . In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the development of the metathesis method for organic syntheses” together with Yves Chauvin and Richard R. Schrock . In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Florida and in 2013 an honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen University . For 2017 he was awarded the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry and the Remsen Award . Also in 2017 he was elected to the Royal Society . He was an external member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and since 1999 an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy .

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Web links

Commons : Robert H. Grubbs  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caltech Mourns the Loss of Nobel Laureate Robert H. Grubbs
  2. biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Robert Howard Grubbs at academictree.org, accessed on 7 February 2018th
  3. Honorary Degree Recipients ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) president.ufl.edu, accessed on January 11, 2021.
  4. RWTH Aachen: RWTH honorary doctorate for Nobel Prize winners
  5. ^ Members: Robert H. Grubbs. Royal Irish Academy, accessed May 6, 2019 .