Roald Hoffmann
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Roald Hoffmann
Polish-born American chemist (1937–
Born in Zloczow, Poland (now Zolochez in Ukraine), Hoffmann was moved at the age of four with his family to a labor camp. His father was executed for trying to escape, but Hoffmann and his mother were smuggled out in 1943 and spent the rest of World War II hiding in the attic of a schoolhouse. Hoffmann has noted that only 80 of the 12,000 Jews of Zloczow survived the war. Following the liberation in mid-1944, Hoffmann's mother returned to Poland and emigrated with her son to America in 1949; he became a naturalized citizen in 1955.
Hoffmann was educated at Columbia and at Harvard, where he obtained his PhD in 1962. He moved to Cornell in 1965 and was appointed professor of chemistry in 1974.
In the mid-1960s Hoffmann began a research collaboration with R. B. Woodward on molecular orbital theory. Their work led to the formulation in 1965 of what are now known as the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. These laid down general conditions under which certain organic reactions can occur. The rules apply to pericyclic reactions. In reactions of this kind bond breaking and formation occur simultaneously without the presence of intermediates, i.e., they are said to be ‘concerted’ reactions. The reactions also involve cyclic structures. Woodward and Hoffmann published their work in their Conservation of Orbital Symmetry (1969). Hoffmann's collaboration with Woodward won him a share of the 1981 Nobel Prize for chemistry with K. Fukui; Woodward's death in 1979, however, robbed him of his second Nobel Prize.
Hoffmann has also published two volumes of verse, The Metamict State, and Gaps and Verges. He has also written and presented a number of television programmes, The World of Chemistry and The Molecular World, in which he has attempted to introduce chemistry to a wider audience. A similar approach can be seen in his The Same and Not the Same (1995), in which he tries to describe for a popular audience how the world behaves at the molecular level.
Hoffmann, Roald, 1937-, American chemist, b. Złoczów, Poland (now Zolochiv, Ukraine), Ph.D. Harvard, 1962. After receiving his degree and working with Robert Woodward at Harvard (1962-65), he became (1965) a professor at Cornell. His work analyzing the mechanics of chemical reactions led to his sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981 with Kenichi Fukui of Japan. A poet as well as a chemist, Hoffmann is the author of several books of poetry and essays, including The Metamict State (1987), Gaps and Verges (1990), Memory Effects (1999), and with S. Leibowitz Schmidt, Old Wine, New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Jewish Tradition (1997). He also wrote two popular-science books, Chemistry Imagined: Reflections on Science (1993) and The Same and Not the Same (1995), and in 1993 he hosted a 26-segment television documentary on the Public Broadcasting Service entitled The World of Chemistry.
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Roald Hoffmann
| Roald Hoffmann | |
|---|---|
 Roald Hoffmann |
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| Born | July 18, 1937 Zolochiv, Poland (now Ukraine) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | Cornell University |
| Alma mater | Stuyvesant High School Columbia University Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | William N. Lipscomb, Jr. |
| Known for | reaction mechanisms |
| Notable awards | 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry |
Roald Hoffmann (born July 18, 1937)[1] is an American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, Emeritus, at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.[2]
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Early life
Escape from the Holocaust
Hoffmann was born in Zolochiv,(Ukraine) to a Jewish family and was named in honor of the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen. After Germany invaded Poland and occupied the town, his family was placed in a labor camp where his father, a civil engineer familiar with much of the local infrastructure, was a valued prisoner. As the situation grew more dangerous, with prisoners being transferred to liquidation camps, the family bribed guards to allow an escape and arranged with Ukrainian neighbors for Hoffman, his mother, two uncles and an aunt to hide in the attic and a storeroom of the local schoolhouse, where they remained for fifteen months, while Hoffman was aged 5 to 7.
His father remained at the labor camp, but was able to occasionally visit, until he was tortured and killed by the Germans for his involvement in a plot to arm the camp prisoners. When she received the news, his mother attempted to contain her sorrow by writing down her feelings in a notebook her husband had been using to take notes on a relativity textbook he had been reading. While in hiding his mother kept Hoffman entertained by teaching him to read and having him memorize geography from textbooks stored in the attic, then quizzing him on it. He referred to the experience as having been enveloped in a cocoon of love.[3]
Most of the rest of the family perished in Holocaust, though one grandmother and a few others survived.[4] They migrated to the United States in 1949.
Hoffman visited Zolochiv with his adult son (by then a parent of a five-year-old) in 2006 and found that the attic where he had hidden was still intact, but the storeroom had been incorporated, ironically enough, into a chemistry classroom. In 2009, a monument to Holocaust victims was built in Zolochiv on Hoffmann's initiative.[5].
Academic credentials
Hoffmann graduated in 1955 from New York City's Stuyvesant High School,[6] where he won a Westinghouse science scholarship. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University (Columbia College) in 1958. He earned his Master of Arts degree in 1960 from Harvard University. He went to Cornell in 1965 and has remained there, becoming professor emeritus.
He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University while working [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] under direction of subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. Under Lipscomb's direction the Extended Huckel method was developed by Lawrence Lohr and by Roald Hoffmann.[8][12] This method was later extended by Hoffman.[13]
Chemistry interests
Hoffmann has investigated both organic and inorganic substances, developing computational tools and methods such as the extended Hückel method, which he proposed in 1963.
He also developed, with Robert Burns Woodward, rules for elucidating reaction mechanisms (the Woodward-Hoffmann rules). He also introduced the isolobal principle.
The World Of Chemistry with Roald Hoffman
Hoffman is the co-host of the Annenberg/CPB educational series, The World of Chemistry, with Don Showalter.
Artistic interests
Hoffmann is also a writer of poetry published in two collections, "The Metamict State" (1987, ISBN 0-8130-0869-7) and "Gaps and Verges" (1990, ISBN 0-8130-0943-X), and of books explaining chemistry to the general public. Also, he co-authored with Carl Djerassi a play called "Oxygen" about the discovery of oxygen, but also about what it means to be a scientist and the importance of process of discovery in science.
Hoffmann stars in the World of Chemistry video series with Don Showalter.
Since the spring of 2001, Hoffmann has been the host of a monthly series at New York City's Cornelia Street Cafe called "Entertaining Science," which explores the juncture between the arts and science.
Hoffmann and Brian Alan produced an English cover of Wei Wei's song “Dedication of Love“. Proceeds from this project were to be contributed to the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. The nine artists involved in the project are BoA, Wei Wei, Phoebe, Rusiana Gaitana, Sonu, Ruth Sahanaya and three others from Paris, Brazil and Oman.[14]
Awards
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
In 1981, Hoffmann received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with Kenichi Fukui.[15]
Other awards
- Priestley Medal
- Arthur C. Cope Award in Organic Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry Award (American Chemical Society), 1969
- Inorganic Chemistry Award (American Chemical Society), 1982
- Pimentel Award in Chemical Education (1996)
- Award in Pure Chemistry
- Monsanto Award
- Literaturpreis of the Verband der Chemischen Industrie for his textbook "The Same and Not The Same" (1997)
- National Medal of Science
- National Academy of Sciences
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow
- American Philosophical Society Fellow
- Kolos Medal
- Foreign Member, Royal Society
- Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Harvard Centennial Medalist
- James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry
Hoffmann is member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists[1].
In August 2007, the American Chemical Society held a symposium at its biannual national meeting to honor Hoffmann's 70th birthday. He also has served as a consultant with Eli Lilly and Company, a global pharmaceutical corporation.
See also
References
- ^ Hoffmann's birth name was Roald Safran. Hoffmann is the surname adopted by his stepfather in the years after World War II
- ^ Hoffman, J. (2011). "Q&A: Chemical connector Roald Hoffmann talks about language, ethics and the sublime". Nature 480 (7376): 179. DOI:10.1038/480179a.
- ^ The Long Ukrainian Winters featuring Roald Hoffman, lecture at the World Science Festival.
- ^ The Tense Middle by Roald Hoffmann, story on NPR. Retrieved 29 September 2006.
- ^ Holocaust monument dedicated in western Ukraine. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. July 20, 2009
- ^ "Roald Hoffmann's land between chemistry, poetry and philosophy". http://www.roaldhoffmann.com/pn/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=11&page=1. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
- ^ Hoffmann R and Lipscomb WN, Theory of Polyhedral Molecules. III. Population Analyses and Reactivities for the Carboranes, J. Chem. Phys., 36, 3489 (1962).
- ^ a b Hoffmann R and Lipscomb WN, Theory of Polyhedral Molecules. I. Physical Factorizations of the Secular Equation, J. Chem. Phys., 36, 2179 (1962).
- ^ Hoffmann R and Lipscomb WN, The Boron Hydrides; LCAO-MO and Resonance Studies, J.Chem. Phys., 37, 2872 (1962).
- ^ Hoffmann R and Lipscomb WN, Sequential Substitution Reactions on B10H10-2 and B12H12-2, J. Chem. Phys., 37, 520 (1962).
- ^ Hoffmann R and Lipscomb WN, Intramolecular Isomerization and Transformations in Carboranes and Substituted Boron Hydrides, Inor. Chem., 2, 231 (1963).
- ^ Lipscomb WN. Boron Hydrides, W. A. Benjamin Inc., New York, 1963, Chapter 3.
- ^ Hoffmann R. An Extended Hückel Theory. I. Hydrocarbons. J. Chem. Phys, 39, 1397-1412 (1963).
- ^ BoA sings for SICHUAN’S EARTHQUAKE ! « BoA’s Jewelry Box
- ^ Cornell Chemistry Faculty Research
External links
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{{Persondata | NAME = Hoffmann, Roald | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = July 18, 1937 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Zolochiv], Ukraine | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = }}
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Mentioned in
Kenichi Fukui
(Japanese theoretical and physical chemist)
Year 1963
(in Science & Technology)
Year 1981
(in Science & Technology)
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