Fred Basolo

Infobox_Scientist
name = Fred Basolo


caption = Fred Basolo
birth_date = birth date|1920|2|11
birth_place = Coello, Illinois
death_date = death date and age|2007|2|27|1920|2|11
death_place =
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nationality = American
field = Inorganic chemistry
work_institution = Northwestern University
alma_mater = University of Illinois phd 1943
doctoral_advisor =
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known_for =
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Fred Basolo (February 11 1920 - February 27 2007) was an American inorganic chemist. He received his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1943 with John C. Bailar. Basolo spent his entire professional career at Northwestern University. He was a prolific contributor to the fields of coordination chemistry, organometallic, and bioinorganic chemistry, publishing over 400 papers. He supervised many PhD students. With his colleague Ralph Pearson, he coauthored the influential monograph "Mechanisms of Inorganic Reactions", which illuminated the importance of mechanisms involving coordination compounds. This work, which integrated concepts from ligand field theory and physical organic chemistry, signaled a shift from a highly descriptive nature of coordination chemistry to a more quantitative science. [Basolo, F.; Pearson, R. G. "Mechanisms of Inorganic Reactions." John Wiley and Son: New York: 1967. ISBN 047105545X] [cite journal
author = Harry Gray, John S. Magyar
title = Obituary Fred Basolo (1920-2007)
journal = Angewandte Chemie International Edition
volume = 46
issue = 16
pages = 2746–2747
year = 2007
doi = 10.1002/anie.200701155 ] [cite journal
author = George B. Kauffman, Laurie M. Kauffman and Harry B. Gray
title = Fred Basolo (1920–2007): A tribute from students, colleagues, and family
journal = Polyhedron
volume = 26
issue = 17
pages = 4779–4785
year = 2007
doi = 10.1016/j.poly.2007.07.046 ]

Among the many topics on which Basolo published were the "indenyl effect", [http://www.chemistry.lsu.edu/stanley/webpub/4571-Notes/chap11-substitution-rxns.doc] the reaction of coordinated ligands, and synthetic models for myoglobin.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the Priestley Medal and the George Pimentel Award in Chemical Education. He was president of the American Chemical Society in 1983. [R. Petkewich, "Fred Basolo Dies at 87", "Chemical & Engineering News", 5 March 2007, page 13, published by American Chemical Society]

References

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External links

* http://www.cerm.unifi.it/FondSacc/basolo.html
* http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i10/8510notw8.html
* http://www.chemheritage.org/exhibits/ex-oral-detail.asp?ID=91&Numb=1