William Lipscomb

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William N. Lipscomb (around 1980)

William Nunn Lipscomb (born December 9, 1919 in Cleveland , Ohio , † April 14, 2011 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American chemist .

Lipscomb studied chemistry and at times physics at the University of Kentucky and the California Institute of Technology . He received his doctorate in 1946 at CalTec under Linus Pauling with the thesis Part 1, Electron diffraction investigations of vanadium tetrachloride, dimethylketene dimer, tetrachloroethylene, and trichloroethylene; Part 2, The crystal structure of methylammonium chloride . During his studies he was involved in research and development work in the military field.

After graduation, he taught from 1946 to 1959 at the University of Minnesota . He had been a professor at Harvard University since 1959 and worked, among other things, in the field of X-ray structure analysis and crystal growth . For his research into the stereochemical structure and the theoretical explanation of the boranes , he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1976 . He also transferred his results to related groups of substances such as the carboranes .

Later he dealt with the structure and function of proteins , also with the help of protein crystallography .

In addition to other honors, Lipscomb received an honorary doctorate from the University of Munich . In 1960 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1961 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

Commons : William Lipscomb  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas H. Maugh II: Obituary: William N. Lipscomb dies at 91; won Nobel Prize in chemistry. In: Los Angeles Times. April 16, 2011, accessed June 14, 2013 .
  2. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of William N. Lipscomb at academictree.org, accessed on May 26, 2018.