Corwin Hansch

Corwin Hansch
Born	Corwin Herman Hansch October 6, 1918(1918-10-06) Kenmare, North Dakota
Died	May 8, 2011(2011-05-08) (aged 92) Claremont, California
Nationality	American
Fields	Organic Chemistry
Institutions	Pomona College Manhattan Project
Alma mater	University of Illinois New York University
Spouse	Gloria J. Hansch (nee Tomasulo) (m.1945?-2011) (his death) (1 child)

Corwin Herman Hansch (October 6, 1918 – May 8, 2011^[1]) was a Professor of Chemistry at Pomona College in California. He became known as the 'father of computer-assisted molecule design.'

Early Life and Childhood

He was born on October 6, 1918 in Kenmare, North Dakota.

Education

He earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1940 and a Ph.D. from New York University in 1944.

Career

Hansch taught Organic Chemistry for many years at Pomona College, and was known for giving complex lectures without using notes. His course in Physical Bio-Organic Medicinal Chemistry was ground-breaking at an undergraduate level.

Hansch may be best known as the father of the concept of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), the quantitative correlation of the physicochemical properties of molecules with their biological activities.

He is also noted for the Hansch equation, which is used in

• Multivariate Statistics - Multivariate statistics is a set of statistical tools to analyse data (e.g., chemical and biological) matrices using regression and/or pattern recognition techniques.

• Hansch Analysis - Hansch analysis is the investigation of the quantitative relationship between the biological activity of a series of compounds and their physicochemical substituent or global parameters representing hydrophobic, electronic, steric and other effects using multiple regression correlation methodology.

• Hansch-Fujita π constant - The Hansch-Fujita π constant describes the contribution of a substituent to the lipophilicity of a compound.

Research Interests: Organic Chemistry; Interaction of organic chemicals with living organisms, Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR).

• Fragment based regression analysis for quantitative structure-activity relationship (Hansch-analysis)

Death

He died of pneumonia on May 8, 2011 in Claremont, California at 92.^[2]

See also

• Hammett equation
• Craig plot

Notes

• Book: Exploring QSAR - Corwin Hansch, Albert Leo and David Hoekman
• Reviews: 23 Reviews^[3]
• Journal articles: Co-authored more than 265 articles

His research group at Pomona College worked on QSAR studies and in building and expanding the database of chemical and physical data as C-QSAR and Bioloom. His postgraduate associates were Rajni Garg, Cynthia D Selassie, Suresh Babu Mekapati, and Alka Kurup.

External links

• Example for Hansch equation and Hansch-Fujita π constant
• Pomona College homepage
• Biography, The QSAR and Modelling Society News, October 1998

References

1. ^ http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-corwin-hansch-20110523,0,7063064.story
2. ^ http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-corwin-hansch-20110523,0,7063064.story
3. ^ PubMed: "hansch c"[author]

Persondata
Name	Hansch, Corwin
Alternative names
Short description	Pharmacologist
Date of birth	October 6, 1918
Place of birth	Kenmare, North Dakota
Date of death	May 8, 2011
Place of death	Claremont, California