F. Albert Cotton

Frank Albert Cotton
Born	April 9, 1930(1930-04-09) Philadelphia PA
Died	February 20, 2007(2007-02-20) (aged 76) College Station TX
Institutions	Texas A&M University
Doctoral advisor	Geoffrey Wilkinson
Notable awards	National Medal of Science, Wolf Prize, Priestley Medal, FRS

Frank Albert Cotton (April 9, 1930 – February 20, 2007)^[1] was the W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He authored over 1700 scientific articles.^[2] Cotton was recognized for his research on the chemistry of the transition metals.

Education

Frank Albert Cotton was born on April 9, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended local public schools before Drexel University and then Temple University.^[3] After earning his BA degree from Temple in 1951, Cotton pursued a Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard where he worked on metallocenes.^[4] He received his Ph.D in 1955.^[5]

Independent career

Following his graduation from Harvard, Cotton began teaching at MIT. In 1961, at thirty-one years of age, he became the youngest person to have received a full professorship at MIT. ^[3] 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,^[6] and in 1964 identified the quadruple bond in the Re₂Cl2−
8 ion. His work soon focused on other metal-metal bonded species,^[7] 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 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.^[3][8]

Pedagogical influence

In addition to his research, Cotton taught inorganic chemistry. He authored Chemical Applications of Group Theory.^[9] 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. Coauthored with his thesis advisor, Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, the textbook is colloquially known as "Cotton and Wilkinson." The text surveys coordination chemistry, cluster chemistry, homogeneous catalysis, and organometallic chemistry.^[3][10]

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^[8] as well as more than 150 postdoctoral associates.^[5]

Recognition

Among the awards Cotton received included the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1982^[11], the Wolf Prize in 2000; and the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest recognition, in 1998.^[8]

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, is presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society each year.^[8]

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.^[8]

Run for ACS presidency

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”.^[12] Cotton ultimately lost the bid to his opponent Dr. Warren D. Niederhauser of Rohm & Haas.^[13]

Death

Cotton died on February 20, 2007 in College Station, Texas from complications of a head injury he suffered in a fall in October 2006.^[14] He was survived by his wife, the former Diane Dornacher, whom he married in 1959, and their two daughters, Jennifer and Jane.^[3] The Brazos County Sheriff's Department opened an investigation into his death, describing his passing as "suspicious".^[15]

References

1. ^ 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. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0003.  edit
2. ^ McCue, Kevin (2001). "F. Albert Cotton Award Article". The American Chemical Society. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20060927055808/http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pro.html?id=248326ce2f6b11d6f2b66ed9fe800100. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Professor F Albert Cotton". The Daily Telegraph. 2007-03-03. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/03/02/db0203.xml. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 
4. ^ Wilkinson, G.; Pauson, P. L.; Cotton, F. A. (1954). Journal of the American Chemical Society 76 (7): 1970. doi:10.1021/ja01636a080.  edit
5. ^ ^{a b} Obituary in Current Science 92, 844 (25 March 2007)
6. ^ Bertrand, J. A.; Cotton, F. A.; Dollase, W. A. (1963). Journal of the American Chemical Society 85 (9): 1349. doi:10.1021/ja00892a029.  edit
7. ^ Cotton, F. A.; Walton, R. A. “Multiple Bonds Between Metal Atoms” Oxford (Oxford): 1993. ISBN 0-19-855649-7.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Internationally Prominent Chemist Dr. F. Albert Cotton Passed Away Tuesday At Age 76". Texas A&M University. 2007-02-21. http://tamunews.tamu.edu/2007/02/21/internationally-prominent-chemist-dr-f-albert-cotton-passed-away-tuesday-at-age-76/. Retrieved 2011-01-26. 
9. ^ Cotton, F. A., Chemical Applications of Group Theory, John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1990. ISBN 0471510947
10. ^ Cotton, F. A. and Wilkinson, G., Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1988.ISBN 9780471199575
11. ^ National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science
12. ^ Candid Science: Conversations with Famous Chemists. By István Hargittai, 2000, pp 241–242.
13. ^ Badger chemist : a newsletter from the Department of Chemistry--University of Wisconsin--Madison; Newsletter 30 (November 1983) http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/UW/UW-idx?type=div&did=UW.BCNOV1983.I0002&isize=text
14. ^ Morrissey, Susan (2007-02-26). "F. Albert Cotton Dies". Chemical and Engineering News. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i09/8509notw5.html. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 
15. ^ "Professor Cotton's death investigated". The Eagle. 2007-04-18. http://209.189.226.235/stories/041807/am_20070418039.php. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 

Persondata
Name	Cotton, F. Albert
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1930-04-09
Place of birth	Philadelphia PA
Date of death	2007-02-20
Place of death	College Station TX