- Paul von Ragué Schleyer
Paul von Ragué Schleyer (born February 27, 1930) is an organic physical
chemist of substantial significance whose research has been cited with great frequency. A 1997 survey indicated that Dr. Schleyer was, at the time, the world's third most cited chemist, with over 1100 technical papers produced. He wasHiggins Professor of Chemistry atPrinceton University , Professor and co-director of the Organic Institute atErlangen University inGermany , and is currently Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at theUniversity of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. He has published twelve books in the fields oflithium chemistry, ab initiomolecular orbital theory andcarbonium ion s. He is past president of theWorld Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists , a fellow of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Science andEditor-in-chief of theEncyclopedia of Computational Chemistry .Early life
Born on
February 27 ,1930 inCleveland ,Ohio , Schleyer graduated as theValedictorian from his class at Cleveland West Technical High School in 1947. Schleyer received hisA.B. degree fromPrinceton University in 1951Magna Cum Laude ; he earned hisPhD degree fromHarvard University in 1957, having studied underPaul Doughty Bartlett .Princeton University years
Schleyer began teaching at Princeton in 1954 and became Higgins Professor of Chemistry there. Working within the
Frick Laboratory on the Princeton campus, Schleyer was energetic both as a teacher and a researcher. While at Princeton, Schleyer married Inga Venema in 1969. During his Princeton years, Schleyer was awarded aFulbright Fellowship ,Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a J.J.Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Humboldt Special Fellowship. At Princeton he was always present in his combination laboratory/office until late in the evening, available to help his students untangle problems with experiments, as he tirelessly worked on his own research amid uncountable stacks of manuscripts and books.ynopsis of research and publications
Several of his twelve
monograph s are collaborations withNobel Laureate s J.A. Pople, H.C. Brown and G.A. Olah. In his research, Schleyer has made contributions in the area of synthesis ofadamantane and other cage molecules by rearrangement mechanisms. He also discovered new types ofhydrogen bonding . Schleyer also identifiedsolvolysis mechanisms, including reactive intermediates.As a pioneer in the field of
computational chemistry , Schleyer identified a number of new molecular structures, especially related tolithium chemistry and electron deficient systems. He has further contributed to a gamut of topics inorganometallic chemistry,physical organic chemistry ,inorganic chemistry and other theoretical chemical fields. His current research as of 2006 is rejuvenating interest inaromatic ity and investigating planarhypercoordination ofcarbon .Honors
Beyond the fellowships noted above, Schleyer has received numerous prestigious honors including:
*
University of Lyon , France Dr.Honoris Causa , (1971)
*Bavarian Academy of Sciences , Fellow (1984)
*German Chemical Society Adolf-von-Baeyer-Prize (1986))
*American Chemical Society James Flack Norris Award in PhysicalOrganic Chemistry (1987)
* Hungarian Chemical Society (1987)
*Heisenberg Medal (1987)
*World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists , President (1987)
*Royal Society of Chemistry , London,Christopher K. Ingold Medal (1988)
*American Chemical Society Cope Scholar Award (1971)
*Belgian Chemical Society Merck-Schuchardt Chair (1991)
*International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science , Fellow (1992)
*Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (1993)
*University of Munich , Germany, Dr.Honoris Causa (1998)
*National technical University of the Ukraine , Kiev, Honorary professor (1998)
*German Chemical Society Arfvedson Schlenk Prize (1999)
*Polish Chemical Society and theUniversity of Warsaw ,Kolos Medal (2002)External links
* [http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/ecc/ Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry]
* [http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/ecc/editors.html Schleyer as Editor of Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry]
* [http://www.chem.uga.edu/Schleyer/AboutMe.html Paul von Rague Schleyer Homepage]
* [http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/watoc/ World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists]
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