Henry Taube

Professor Henry Taube, Ph.D , M.Sc , B.Sc , FRSC (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist noted for having been awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes," otherwise referred to as inner-sphere electron transfer.

Taube was born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan and attended high school at Luther College in Regina. He received his B.Sc and M.Sc from the University of Saskatchewan in 1935 and 1937 respectively. He went on to get his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley in 1940. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1942. He was a Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and at Stanford University (1961–1986). Taube was also a consultant at the U.S. Department of Energy Los Alamos National Laboratory.

His Nobel-winning studies concerned the reactions in which some molecules grab electrons from other molecules, known as redox, a portmanteau word combining "reduction" and "oxidation." Redox reactions occur widely in plant photosynthesis and animal respiration, and in industrial processes such as combustion. His work specifically concerned coordination compounds, where one metal atom is surrounded by a number of other atoms or molecules known as ligands. He was among the earliest chemists to use isotopes to determine reaction mechanisms, and among the first to probe mechanisms of inorganic chemistry. He greatly expanded the known chemistry of ruthenium and osmium, metals in which backbonding is important to their reactivity.

He died in his home in Palo Alto, California on November 16, 2005, at the age of 89.

One of his sons, Karl Taube, is a noted Mayanist researcher and Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Riverside, known for his work on the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica.

References

• New York Times obituary
• P. C. Ford, E. I. Solomon, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2006, 45, 692–693. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200504564
• C. Creutz, P. C. Ford, T. J. Meyer "Henry Taube: Inorganic Chemist Extraordinaire" Inorganic Chemistry, 2006, volume 45, pp 7059 – 7068. DOI: 10.1021/ic060669s
• Schwartz, M. "Henry Taube, recipient of Nobel Prize in chemistry, dead at 89", Stanford News Service, (November 17, 2005).

Publications

• Taube, H., Jackson, J. A. & J. F. Lemons. "Oxygen-17 NMR Shifts Caused by Cr{Sup ++} in Aqueous Solutions", Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1962).
• Taube, H. "Reactions of Solvated Ions Final Report", University of Chicago, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (September 24, 1962).
• Taube, H. & A. Viste. "Isotopic Discrimination of Some Solutes in Liquid Ammonia", University of Chicago, Stanford University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1966).
• Taube, H. "Final Technical Report of Research", Stanford University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (April 3, 1972).

External links

• Photograph, Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
• Van Houten, J. "A Century of Chemical Dynamics Traced through the Nobel Prizes: 1983: Henry Taube". Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 79, no. 7, pp. 788-790, (July 2002).