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My Life in the Golden Age of Chemistry
More Fun Than Fun
1st Edition - July 22, 2014
Author: F. Albert Cotton
Language: English
Hardback ISBN:9780128012161
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 0 1 2 1 6 - 1
eBook ISBN:9780128013380
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 0 1 3 3 8 - 0
A giant in the field and at times a polarizing figure, F. Albert Cotton’s contributions to inorganic chemistry and the area of transitions metals are substantial and undeniable. In…Read more
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A giant in the field and at times a polarizing figure, F. Albert Cotton’s contributions to inorganic chemistry and the area of transitions metals are substantial and undeniable. In his own words, My Life in the Golden Age of Chemistry: More Fun than Fun describes the late chemist’s early life and college years in Philadelphia, his graduate training and research contributions at Harvard with Geoffrey Wilkinson, and his academic career from becoming the youngest ever full professor at MIT (aged 31) to his extensive time at Texas A&M. Professor Cotton’s autobiography offers his unique perspective on the advances he and his contemporaries achieved through one of the most prolific times in modern inorganic chemistry, in research on the then-emerging field of organometallic chemistry, metallocenes, multiple bonding between transition metal atoms, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, hapticity, and more. Working during a time of generous government funding of science and strong sponsorship for good research, Professor Cotton’s experience and observations provide insight into this prolific and exciting period of chemistry.
Offers personal and often wry perspective from this prominent chemist and recipient of some of science’s highest honors: the U.S. National Medal of Science (1982), the Priestley Medal (the American Chemical Society's highest recognition, 1998), membership in the U. S. National Academy of Sciences and corresponding international bodies, and 29 honorary doctorates
Details the background behind the development and emergence of groundbreaking research in organometallic chemistry and transition metals
Provides beautifully-written and engaging insight into a "Golden Age of Chemistry" and the work of historically renowned chemists
Inorganic chemists, chemists, libraries
Dedication
Foreword
Prologue
To The Reader
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Philadelphia
High School (Jr. and Sr.) Years
College Days
Chapter 2. Harvard Years
A Summer at Los Alamos, 1952
The Pace of Research Quickens
My First Trip to Europe
Back to Harvard
Chapter 3. MIT 1955–60
Chapter 4. MIT 1961–71
The Sporting Life: Horses and Hounds
A Visit to Argentina
A Pleasant Sojourn in New York City
Calm Before the Storm
Goodbye to MIT
Chapter 5. MIT 1961–71: Mostly About Science
The Discovery of the Quadruple Bond
Infrared Spectra of Metal Carbonyls
Fluxional Organometallic Molecules
An Enzyme Structure — Staph Nuclease
Chapter 6. Yee Ha! Off to Texas
The Discovery of Agostic Interactions
More Metal—Metal Multiple Bonds
Collaboration with Malcolm Chisholm
The Rise and Decline of the Crystal Structure Industry
My First Visit to Israel and the Chemistry It Led To
My Adventure in Iran
The French Connection(s)
A Meeting in Southern Bavaria
Chapter 7. Good Times in the 1980s
A Fiasco of My Own Making
The National Medal of Science
The National Science Board
The Superconducting Supercollider
Chapter 8. From 1990 to the End of the Millennium
Other Activities During the 1990s
Chapter 9. The New Millenium
Chapter 10. More About People
Meeting Famous People
Secretaries
Jack Lewis
Earl Muetterties
Geoffrey Wilkinson
Derek Barton
Rick Adams
Carlos Murillo
Larry Falvello
Achim Müller
Herbert Roesky
Wolfgang Herrmann
Joseph Chatt
Fausto Calderazzo
Chapter 11. A Concluding Miscellany
Writing Books
Industrial Consulting
Changing Times at Texas A&M University
Animals
Some Recollections of Travel
Foreign Students
Three Golden Rules
Epilogue
Appendices
Appendix A. Ph.D. Students
Appendix B. Postdoctorals
Appendix C. Visitors
Appendix D. Priestly Lecture, 1998: Science Today — What Follows The Golden Age
What Is a Golden Age?
Is the Golden Age Over?
What Lies Ahead
What Would I Like to See Happen Right Now?
Appendix E. Publications
Appendix F. Some Former Ph.D. Students
Index
No. of pages: 512
Language: English
Edition: 1
Published: July 22, 2014
Imprint: Elsevier
Hardback ISBN: 9780128012161
eBook ISBN: 9780128013380
FC
F. Albert Cotton
Affiliations and expertise
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA (Deceased)
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