Biographical Memoirs Volume 67 (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Lee Irvin Smith
Lee Irvin Smith
Pages 378-393
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 379... ...
degree recipients) and thirteen postdoctoral fellows, he pioneered research in many areas, including studies of the Jacobsen rearrangement; polyalkylatecI benzenes; reactions of quinones with metal enolates; the chemistry and synthesis of vitamin E; and the synthesis, structure, and properties of cyclopropanes.
|
From page 380... ...
This led him to continue at Ohio State University and complete a master of arts degree in industrial chemistry, a version of chemical engineering popular at that time. During his final year at Ohio State University, Smith became acquainted with a young professor from Harvard named Shipley, who persuaded Smith to enroll at Harvard in 1915 to stu(ly with Theodore Richards in physical chemistry.
|
From page 381... ...
degree from Harvard and was appointed an instructor there for continuing his graduate studies. Among the graduate students studying organic chemistry at Harvard at that time were Roger Adams, lames Bryant Conant, Henry Oilman, Nathan Drake, and Ralph Helmkamp.
|
From page 382... ...
After receiving his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Koelsch had been a National Research Council fellow at Harvarcl. Within two years after his appointment to the University of Minnesota, Koelsch was the winner of the prestigious Langmuir Award (precursor to the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry)
|
From page 383... ...
Aside from the American Chemical Society, Smith was a member of the Chemical Society of London, Deutschen Chemischen Geselischaft, Swiss Chemical Society, American Biological Chemists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Alpine Club. Lee Smith remained as chief of the Organic Chemistry Division at Minnesota until 195S, when he resigned to prepare for an orderly transition to accompany his retirement in 1960.
|
From page 384... ...
Let us turn now to what it was that made Smith such a special person. A careful reading of his published work discloses much more than just the imagination to conceive these investigations and the accumulated knowledge and skill to carry them through to a satisfactory conclusion.
|
From page 385... ...
No one wanted to experience a second such reprimand. Lee Smith recognized the vital and delicate relationship between the training of graduate students and the scientific accomplishments such training produces.
|
From page 386... ...
For those of us who were privileged to be students at Minnesota at the time that its Organic Chemistry Division was emerging from relative obscurity to become a leading department, we recognized what was occurring and that Lee Smith was the central figure in this development. He knew what a fine department should be and how to build it.
|
From page 387... ...
These were very special affairs and included skits put together by the students after much preparation. Lee Smith's hobbies inclucled mountain climbing, horticulture (particularly growing orchids)
|
From page 388... ...
As illustrated in the example on the following page, the Jacobsen rearrangement occurs when polyalkyI- or polyhalobenzenesulfonic acid is allowed to stand in sulfuric acid and involves the intramolecular or intermolecular migration of one or more alky! or halo substituents.
|
From page 389... ...
this interest further by synthesizing cyclopropanes containing functional groups and studying the chemical behavior of such derivatives. His accomplishments in this area are recorded in a group of twenty-two publicaa CH3 4'CH3 11 11 CH3~—CH3 o R Na+ [CHCO2Et]
|
From page 390... ...
Both possible racemates were formed, and each was isolated in a pure crystalline state. Each of these racemates, when treated with sodium methoxicle, gave the same enolic ether, shown above, as the only product.
|
From page 391... ...
The reaction between duroquinone and sodium malonic esters.
|
From page 392... ...
XIII. Trimethylethylquinone and sodium malonic ester.
|
From page 393... ...
XXI. Second paper on bromotrimethylquinone and sodio malonic esters.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.