Eugene Earle van Tamelen (July 20, 1925 – December 12, 2009) was an organic chemist

Organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...

 who contributed especially to bioorganic chemistry.

Van Tamelen published his first paper in the preeminent Journal of the American Chemical Society

Journal of the American Chemical Society

The Journal of the American Chemical Society is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the Journal of Analytical and Applied Chemistry and the American Chemical Journal...

 while an undergraduate at Hope College

Hope College

Hope College is a medium-sized , private, residential liberal arts college located in downtown Holland, Michigan, a few miles from Lake Michigan. It was opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled...

. He did graduate work at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, receiving his doctorate in 1950. He began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin, later joining the faculty of Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, where he spent the majority of his career. Among his many students was Nobelist K. Barry Sharpless

K. Barry Sharpless

Karl Barry Sharpless is an American chemist known for his work on stereoselective reactions.-Early years:Sharpless was born in Philadelphia. He graduated from Friends' Central School in 1959. He continued his studies at Dartmouth College and earned his Ph.D from Stanford University in 1968...

. van Tamelen died of cancer in 2009.

He pioneered in what is today called biomimetic synthesis. He was the first to identify squalene oxide as a precursor in the biosynthesis

Biosynthesis

Biosynthesis is an enzyme-catalyzed process in cells of living organisms by which substrates are converted to more complex products. The biosynthesis process often consists of several enzymatic steps in which the product of one step is used as substrate in the following step...

 of cholesterol

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...

. Van Tamelen was also the first to synthesise Dewar benzene

Dewar benzene

Dewar benzene or bicyclo[2.2.0]hexa-2,5-diene is a bicyclic isomer of benzene with the molecular formula C6H6. The compound is named after James Dewar who included this structure in a list of possible C6H6 structures in 1867....

. Among his awards, he received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences. What most people do not know is that he also found a way to fix nitrogen at atmospheric pressure and temperature using titanocene.