American chemist (1930?2007)
Frank Albert Cotton
|
---|
Cotton in August 2005
|
Born
| (
1930-04-09
)
April 9, 1930
|
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Died
| February 20, 2007
(2007-02-20)
(aged 76)
|
---|
Citizenship
| USA
|
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Alma mater
| Harvard University
|
---|
Awards
| William H. Nichols Medal
(1975)
National Medal of Science
(1982)
NAS Award in Chemical Sciences
(1990)
Priestley Medal
(1998)
Wolf Prize
(2000)
FRS
|
---|
Scientific career
|
Fields
| Inorganic Chemistry
|
---|
Institutions
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Texas A&M University
|
---|
Doctoral advisor
| Geoffrey Wilkinson
[1]
|
---|
Doctoral students
| Richard H. Holm
,
Stephen J. Lippard
,
Charles B. Harris
,
Tobin J. Marks
,
Hong-Cai (Joe) Zhou
,
John J. Wise
,
Walter G. Klemperer
,
John P. Fackler, Jr.
,
Tong Ren
,
Richard D. Adams
|
---|
Other notable students
| Ada Yonath
,
Kim Renee Dunbar
,
Rinaldo Poli
,
Akhil Ranjan Chakravarty
|
---|
|
Website
| facotton
.com
|
---|
Frank Albert Cotton
FRS
(April 9, 1930 ? February 20, 2007)
[1]
was an American chemist. He was the W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at
Texas A&M University
. He authored over 1600 scientific articles.
[2]
Cotton was recognized for his research on the chemistry of the
transition metals
.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Cotton, known as "Al" Cotton, or "F Albert" on publications, was born on April 9, 1930, in
Philadelphia
,
Pennsylvania
. He attended local public schools before attending
Drexel University
and then
Temple University
, both in Philadelphia.
[2]
After earning his
Bachelor of Arts
degree from Temple in 1951, Cotton pursued a Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of
Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson
[1]
at
Harvard University
where he worked on
metallocenes
.
[3]
He received his
Ph.D.
in 1955.
[4]
Career
[
edit
]
Following his graduation from
Harvard University
, Cotton began teaching at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). In 1961, at 31-years-old, he became the youngest person to have received a full professorship at MIT.
[2]
His work emphasized both electronic structure and chemical synthesis. He pioneered the study of multiple bonding between transition metal atoms, starting with research on
rhenium
halides,
[5]
and in 1964 identified the
quadruple bond
in the
Re
2
Cl
2?
8
ion. His work soon focused on other metal-metal bonded species,
[6]
elucidating the structure of chromium(II) acetate.
He was an early proponent of single crystal
X-ray diffraction
as a tool for elucidating the extensive chemistry of metal complexes. Through his studies on clusters, he demonstrated that many exhibited "
fluxionality
", whereby ligands interchange coordination sites on spectroscopically observable time-scales. He coined the term "
hapticity
" and the nomenclature that derives from it.
In 1962 he undertook the crystal structure of the Staphylococcal nuclease enzyme,
[7]
solved to 2A resolution in 1969, published in 1971,
[8]
and deposited in the
Protein Data Bank
(PDB code 1SNS) as one of the first dozen protein crystal structures.
[9]
In 1972 Cotton moved to Texas A&M University as the Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry. The following year he was named the Doherty-Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. He also served as the director of the university's Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding.
[2]
[10]
Pedagogical influence
[
edit
]
In addition to his research, Cotton taught
inorganic chemistry
. He authored
Chemical Applications of Group Theory
.
[11]
This text focuses on
group theoretical
analysis of
bonding
and
spectroscopy
.
Among college students, Cotton is perhaps best known as the coauthor of the textbook
Advanced Inorganic Chemistry,
now in its sixth English edition.
[12]
[13]
Coauthored with his thesis advisor, Sir
Geoffrey Wilkinson
, and now with coauthors Carlos Murillo and Manfred Bochmann, the textbook is colloquially known as "Cotton and Wilkinson." The text surveys coordination chemistry, cluster chemistry, homogeneous catalysis, and organometallic chemistry.
[2]
[13]
Cotton served on various editorial boards of scientific journals, including those of the
Journal of the American Chemical Society
,
Inorganic Chemistry
, and
Organometallics
. He chaired the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the ACS and was an ACS Councillor for five years. He served on the U.S. National Science Board (1986?1998), which oversees the National Science Foundation, and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Research Laboratory Commission of Texas.
Cotton supervised the thesis research of 116 doctoral students
[10]
as well as more than 150 postdoctoral associates.
[4]
Recognition
[
edit
]
Among the awards Cotton received included the U.S.
National Medal of Science
in 1982,
[14]
the
Wolf Prize
in 2000; and the
Priestley Medal
, the
American Chemical Society
's highest recognition, in 1998.
[10]
In 1995, the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M along with the local section of the American Chemical Society, inaugurated the annual F.A. Cotton Medal for excellence in chemical research.
A second award named in his honor, the F. Albert Cotton Award for Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry,
[15]
is presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society each year.
Cotton was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
in the
United States
, and the corresponding academies in
Russia
,
China
, the
United Kingdom
,
France
, and
Denmark
, as well as the American Philosophical Society. He received twenty-nine honorary doctorates.
[10]
Run for ACS presidency
[
edit
]
Cotton caused a controversy in his run for President of the American Chemical Society for 1984, wherein he mailed a letter to selected members describing his opponent as "a mediocre industrial chemist".
[16]
Cotton ultimately lost the bid to his opponent Dr.
Warren D. Niederhauser
of
Rohm & Haas
.
[17]
F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research
[
edit
]
The F.A. Cotton Medal, established in 1994, is awarded annually by the Texas A&M Section of the
American Chemical Society
to recognize accomplishments in research rather than distinction of any other sort, no matter how meritorious. The award is sponsored by the F. Albert Cotton Endowment Fund, which was initially raised by Carlos A. Murillo in honor of Frank Albert Cotton, to whom the first medal was awarded in 1995. The recipient receives, in addition to the medal, a bronze replica thereof and a certificate describing the award.
[18]
Prize Winners of F. A. Cotton Medal
[
edit
]
Source:
Texas A&M Section of the American Chemical Society
- 1995 F. Albert Cotton, department of chemistry,
Texas A&M University
.
[19]
- 1996
George A. Olah
, department of chemistry,
University of Southern California
;
- 1997
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
,
Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris
,
College de France
;
- 1998
JoAnne Stubbe
, department of chemistry,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
;
- 1999
Alexander Pines
, department of chemistry,
University of California, Berkeley
;
- 2000
Tobin J. Marks
, department of chemistry,
Northwestern University
;
- 2001
Samuel J. Danishefsky
, department of chemistry,
Columbia University
;
- 2002
Ada Yonath
,
Weizmann Institute of Science
;
- 2003
Gabor A. Somorjai
,
University of California, Berkeley
;
- 2004
Albert Eschenmoser
,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
,
Zurich
, and
Scripps Research Institute
;
- 2005
Richard H. Holm
,
Harvard University
;
- 2006
Robin M. Hochstrasser
,
University of Pennsylvania
;
- 2007
Jacqueline K. Barton
,
California Institute of Technology
;
- 2008
Chi-Huey Wong
, The
Scripps Research Institute
, and
National Taiwan University
;
- 2009
Richard N. Zare
,
Stanford University
;
- 2010
Peter J. Stang
,
University of Utah
;
- 2011
George M. Whitesides
,
Harvard University
;
- 2012
R. Graham Cooks
,
Purdue University
;
- 2013
Brian M. Hoffman
,
Northwestern University
;
- 2014
K. Barry Sharpless
, The
Scripps Research Institute
;
- 2015
Douglas C. Rees
,
California Institute of Technology
;
- 2016
Stephen J. Lippard
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
;
- 2017
Jennifer A. Doudna
,
University of California, Berkeley
;
[20]
- 2018
Harry B. Gray
,
California Institute of Technology
;
- 2019 A.
Paul Alivisatos
,
University of California, Berkeley
;
- 2020
Carolyn R. Bertozzi
,
Stanford University
;
- 2021 (no prize awarded);
- 2022
Cynthia M. Friend
,
Kavli Foundation
and
Harvard University
- 2023
Daniel G. Nocera
,
Harvard University
Death
[
edit
]
Cotton died on February 20, 2007, in
College Station, Texas
from complications of a head injury he suffered in a fall in October 2006.
[21]
He was survived by his wife, the former Diane Dornacher, whom he married in 1959, and their two daughters, Jennifer and Jane.
[2]
The Brazos County Sheriff's Department opened an investigation into his death, describing his death as "suspicious".
[22]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Chisholm, M. H.; Lord Lewis Of Newnham (2008).
"Frank Albert Cotton. 9 April 1930 -- 20 February 2007"
.
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
.
54
: 95?115.
doi
:
10.1098/rsbm.2008.0003
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Professor F Albert Cotton"
. The Daily Telegraph. 2007-03-02
. Retrieved
2018-04-27
.
- ^
Wilkinson, G.; Pauson, P. L.; Cotton, F. A. (1954). "Bis-cyclopentadienyl Compounds of Nickel and Cobalt".
Journal of the American Chemical Society
.
76
(7): 1970?1974.
doi
:
10.1021/ja01636a080
.
- ^
a
b
Obituary in Current Science
92
, 844 (25 March 2007)
- ^
Bertrand, J. A.; Cotton, F. A.; Dollase, W. A. (1963). "The Metal-Metal Bonded, Polynuclear Complex Anion in CsReCl
4
".
Journal of the American Chemical Society
.
85
(9): 1349?1350.
doi
:
10.1021/ja00892a029
.
- ^
Cotton, F. A.; Walton, R. A. "Multiple Bonds Between Metal Atoms" Oxford (Oxford): 1993.
ISBN
0-19-855649-7
.
- ^
Cotton FA, Hazen EE Jr, Richardson DC (1966).
"Crystalline extracellular nuclease of Staphylococcal nuclease"
.
Journal of Biological Chemistry
.
241
: 4389?4390.
doi
:
10.1016/S0021-9258(18)99732-2
.
- ^
Arnone, A.; Bier, C.J.; Cotton, F.A.; Day, V.W.; Hazen, E.E.; Richardson, D.C.; Richardson, J.S.; Yonath, A. (1971).
"A High Resolution Structure of an Inhibitor Complex of the Extracellular Nuclease of Staphylococcus aureus"
.
Journal of Biological Chemistry
.
246
(7). Elsevier BV: 2302?2316.
doi
:
10.1016/s0021-9258(19)77221-4
.
ISSN
0021-9258
.
- ^
Richardson JS, Richardson DC (Mar 2013).
"Studying and Polishing the PDB's Macromolecules"
.
Biopolymers
.
99
(3): 170?82.
doi
:
10.1002/bip.22108
.
PMC
3535681
.
PMID
23023928
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Internationally Prominent Chemist Dr. F. Albert Cotton Passed Away Tuesday At Age 76"
. Texas A&M University. 2007-02-21. Archived from
the original
on 2010-07-17
. Retrieved
2011-01-26
.
- ^
Cotton, F. A.,
Chemical Applications of Group Theory
, John Wiley & Sons: New York, (1st ed. 1963, 3d ed. 1990).
ISBN
0-471-51094-7
- ^
Wiley: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 6th Edition
- ^
a
b
Cotton, F. A. and Wilkinson, G.,
Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
, John Wiley and Sons: New York, (1st ed. 1962, 6th ed. 1999).
ISBN
978-0-471-19957-1
- ^
National Science Foundation ? The President's National Medal of Science
- ^
"F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry"
. American Chemical Society.
- ^
Hargittai, Istvan (26 January 2000).
Candid Science: Conversations With Famous Chemists
.
World Scientific
. pp. 241?242.
ISBN
978-1-78326-214-4
. Retrieved
10 April
2022
.
- ^
"Niederhauser Serves as ACS President-elect"
.
Badger Chemist Newsletter
. No. 30. UW-Madison Libraries. 30 November 1983
. Retrieved
10 April
2022
.
- ^
"F. A. Cotton Medal for Excellence Chemical Research"
. Texas A&M Section of the American Chemical Society
. Retrieved
2 February
2017
.
- ^
ACS Chemistry for Life
Archived
2013-04-14 at
archive.today
- ^
"F.A. Cotton Medal 2017"
. Archived from
the original
on 2017-04-07
. Retrieved
2017-04-07
.
- ^
"Texas A&M chemist F. Albert Cotton dies at age 76"
. Houston Chronicle. 2007-02-20
. Retrieved
2007-03-14
.
- ^
"Professor Cotton's death investigated"
. The Eagle. 2007-04-18
. Retrieved
2018-03-06
.
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