| Geoffrey Wilkinson | |
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| Born | June 14, 1921 Springside, England |
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| Died | September 26, 1996 (aged 75) London, England |
| Fields | inorganic chemistry |
| Institutions | Harvard University, Imperial College |
| Alma mater | Imperial College |
| Doctoral advisor | Henry Vincent Aird Briscoe |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry  (1973) |
Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (14 July 1921 -- 26 September 1996) was an English chemist. Events 1276 - While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Inorganic chemistry is the branch of Chemistry concerned with the properties and behavior of Inorganic compounds This field covers all Chemical compounds Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine as given in its Royal Charter It is one of only three universities to have reached Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine as given in its Royal Charter It is one of only three universities to have reached A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry. Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A chemist is a Scientist trained in the Science of Chemistry.
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Life
He was born in the village of Springside, near Todmorden in Yorkshire. Todmorden is a Market town and Civil parish, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. His father, also a Geoffrey, was a master house painter and decorator; his mother worked in a local cotton mill. One of his uncles, an organist and choirmaster, had married into a family that owned a small chemical company making Epsom and Glauber's salts for the pharmaceutical industry. This is where he first developed an interest in chemistry.
He was educated at the local council primary school and, after winning a County Scholarship in 1932, went to Todmorden Secondary School. Todmorden High School is a Comprehensive school on Ewood Lane set in the Yorkshire Town of Todmorden, in the Calderdale There, he had the same physics teacher as Sir John Cockcroft, who received a Nobel Prize for “splitting the atom”. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Sir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE ( May 27, 1897 &ndash September 18, 1967) was a British physicist. The Nobel Prize (Nobelpriset (Nobelprisen is a Swedish prize established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Peace, Literature
In 1939 he obtained a Royal Scholarship for study at Imperial College, London, from where he graduated in 1941. Wilkinson's catalyst is the common name for chlorotris(triphenylphosphinerhodium(I, a Chemical compound with the formula RhCl(PPh33 (Ph Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine as given in its Royal Charter It is one of only three universities to have reached In 1942 Professor Friedrich Adolf Paneth was recruiting young chemists for the nuclear energy project. Friedrich Adolf Paneth ( August 31, 1887, Vienna - September 17, 1958) was an Austrian born British chemist Wilkinson joined and was sent out to Canada, where he stayed in Montreal and later Chalk River Laboratories until he could leave in 1946. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec The Chalk River Laboratories (also known as CRL, Chalk River Labs and formerly the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, CRNL) is a Canadian For the next four years he worked with Professor Glenn T. Seaborg at Berkeley, California, mostly on nuclear taxonomy. Glenn Theodore Seaborg ( Glenn Teodor Sjöberg) ( April 19, 1912 &ndash February 25, 1999) won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. He then became a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to return to his first interest as a student - transition metal complexes of ligands such as carbon monoxide and olefins. Carbon monoxide, with the chemical formula CO is a colorless odorless tasteless yet highly toxic Gas. In Organic chemistry, an alkene, olefin, or olefine is an unsaturated Chemical compound containing at least one Carbon
He was then at the Harvard University from September 1951 until he returned to England in December 1955, with a sabbatical break of nine months in Copenhagen. Copenhagen (ˌkəʊpənˈheɪgən ˌkəʊpənˈhɑːgən ˈkəʊpənˌheɪgən ˈkəʊpənˌhɑːgən kʰøb̥ənˈhɑʊ̯ˀn kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn is the capital and largest city At Harvard, he still did some nuclear work on excitation functions for protons in cobalt, but had already begun to work on olefin complexes. The proton ( Greek πρῶτον / proton "first" is a Subatomic particle with an Electric charge of one positive Cobalt (ˈkoʊbɒlt is a hard lustrous silver-grey Metal, a Chemical element with symbol Co.
In June 1955 he was appointed to the chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial College in the University of London, and from then on worked almost entirely on the complexes of transition metals. Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine as given in its Royal Charter It is one of only three universities to have reached The University of London is a university based primarily in London, England, UK.
He was married, with two daughters.
Work
He is well known for his invention of Wilkinson's catalyst RhCl(PPh3)3, and for the discovery of the structure of ferrocene. Ferrocene is the Organometallic compound with the formula Fe(C5H52 Wilkinson's catalyst is the common name for chlorotris(triphenylphosphinerhodium(I, a Chemical compound with the formula RhCl(PPh33 (Ph Ferrocene is the Organometallic compound with the formula Fe(C5H52 Wilkinson's catalyst is used industrially in the hydrogenation of alkenes to alkanes. Hydrogenation is the Chemical reaction that results in addition of Hydrogen (H2 In Organic chemistry, an alkene, olefin, or olefine is an unsaturated Chemical compound containing at least one Carbon Alkanes, also known as Paraffins are Chemical compounds that consist only of the elements Carbon (C and Hydrogen (H (i
He received many awards, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973 for his work on “organometallic compounds” (with Ernst Otto Fischer). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry. Organometallic chemistry is the study of Chemical compounds containing bonds between Carbon and a Metal. Ernst Otto Fischer ( November 10, 1918 &ndash July 23, 2007) was a German Chemist who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering He is also well known for writing, with F. Albert Cotton, "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", often referred to simply as "Cotton and Wilkinson", one of the standard inorganic chemistry textbooks. Frank Albert Cotton ( April 9 1930 – February 20 2007) was the W
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Christian B. Anfinsen, William H. Stein, and Stanford Moore |
Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Ernst Otto Fischer 1973 |
Succeeded by Paul J. Flory |
References
- M. Christian Boehmer Anfinsen Jr ( March 26, 1916 &ndash May 14, 1995) was a Biochemist and a 1972 Nobel Prize laureate William Howard Stein ( June 25, 1911 &ndash February 2, 1980) was an American Biochemist. Stanford Moore ( September 4, 1913 &ndash August 23, 1982) was a U The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry. Ernst Otto Fischer ( November 10, 1918 &ndash July 23, 2007) was a German Chemist who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering Paul John Flory ( June 19 1910 &ndash September 9 1985) was an American chemist who was known for his prodigious volume of work in the field L. H. Green; W. P. Griffith (2000). "Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson. 14 July 1921-26 September 1996". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 46: 594-606.
- Abel, E. (1996). "Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson 1921-1996 In Memoriam". Inorganic Chemistry 35 (26): 7463-7464. doi:. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document.
External links
- Wilkinson's Nobel Foundation biography
- Wilkinson's Nobel Lecture The Long Search for Stable Transition Metal Alkyls
- Video podcast of Wilkinson talking about organometallic chemistry
- Geoffrey Wilkinson Patents
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