William Lipscomb, Nobel Winner in Chemistry, Dies at 91

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

William N. Lipscomb Jr., a Harvard chemistry professor who won a Nobel Prize in 1976 for his research on the structure of molecules and on chemical bonding, died on Thursday in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91.

His death was announced by his son James. Dr. Lipscomb was a Cambridge resident.

A protégé of the two-time Nobel laureate Linus C. Pauling, Dr. Lipscomb was a pioneering researcher whose work on the chemical structure of boranes — compounds of boron and hydrogen — continued Dr. Pauling’s work at the California Institute of Technology in the 1940s.

In terms of practical applications, boron compounds have shown some promise in radiation therapy for treating brain tumors. But mainly the work significantly advanced basic knowledge of the way atoms bond together.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/us/16lipscomb.html

[A Physicist]

1. Purple Borane Haze

So young and with a Nobel he was a hit at the local Cambridge night spots; the ladies of MIT will miss him. I live in the same area and could not hold a candle to Bill on the dance floor.

One day hanging around near Haight & Ashbury with Linus Pauling, Owsley Stanley, and Jerry Garcia, Bill said: “These hip-hugger jeans do not flatter girl’s figures, I don’t like them.” Linus, Owsley, and Jerry thought the Purple MicroDot was distorting his perceptions. After he picked-up a chick wearing these new hip-huggers he had a new perspective and wrote about in his 1972 paper on Boranes where he stated:

“We admittedly made this observation with the benefit of hindsight. This science is known as retrospectroscopy.” - Lipscomb, W. N., Et. Al. , “Structural Ambiguity of the B10H14-2 Ion," Inorganic Chemistry 11, 651 (1972).

He was a kool dude – R.I.P.