Paul von Rague Schleyer
Encyclopedia
Paul von Ragué Schleyer 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 was Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University
, Professor and co-director of the Institute for Organic Chemistry (Institut für organische Chemie) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany
, and is currently Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia
in Athens
, Georgia
. He has published twelve books in the fields of lithium
chemistry, ab initio
molecular orbital
theory and carbonium ion
s. He is past president of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, a fellow of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
and Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry.
, Schleyer graduated as the Valedictorian
from his class at Cleveland West Technical High School in 1947. Schleyer received his A.B.
degree from Princeton University
in 1951 Magna Cum Laude; he earned his PhD
degree from Harvard University
in 1957, having studied under Paul Doughty Bartlett
.
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.
s are collaborations with Nobel Laureates J.A. Pople
, H.C. Brown and G.A. Olah
. In his research, Schleyer has made contributions in the area of synthesis of adamantane
and other cage molecules by rearrangement mechanisms. He also discovered new types of hydrogen bonding. Schleyer also identified solvolysis
mechanisms, including reactive intermediates.
As a pioneer in the field of computational chemistry
, Schleyer identified a number of new molecular structures, especially related to lithium
chemistry and electron deficient systems. He has further contributed to a gamut of topics in organometallic chemistry, physical organic chemistry
, inorganic chemistry
and other theoretical chemical fields. His current research as of 2006 is rejuvenating interest in aromaticity and investigating planar hypercoordination of carbon
.
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...
physical chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
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 was Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, Professor and co-director of the Institute for Organic Chemistry (Institut für organische Chemie) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and is currently Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. He has published twelve books in the fields of lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
chemistry, ab initio
Ab initio quantum chemistry methods
Ab initio quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry. The term ab initiowas first used in quantum chemistry by Robert Parr and coworkers, including David Craig in a semiempirical study on the excited states of benzene.The background is described by Parr...
molecular orbital
Molecular orbital
In chemistry, a molecular orbital is a mathematical function describing the wave-like behavior of an electron in a molecule. This function can be used to calculate chemical and physical properties such as the probability of finding an electron in any specific region. The term "orbital" was first...
theory and carbonium ion
Carbonium ion
A carbonium ion is a carbocation of the penta- or tetracoordinated nonclassical type such as an ion of the type R5C+.- Methanium:The parent compound methanium or CH5+ is protonated methane and a superacid. This ion exists as a reactive intermediate in the interstellar medium and can be produced in...
s. He is past president of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, a fellow of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
The International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science is an international scientific learned society covering all applications of quantum theory to chemistry and chemical physics. It was created in Menton in 1967. The founding members were Raymond Daudel, Per-Olov Löwdin, Robert G. Parr, John...
and Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry.
Early life
Born on February 27, 1930 in Cleveland, OhioOhio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Schleyer graduated as the Valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
from his class at Cleveland West Technical High School in 1947. Schleyer received his A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1951 Magna Cum Laude; he earned his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
degree from 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...
in 1957, having studied under Paul Doughty Bartlett
Paul Doughty Bartlett
Paul Doughty Bartlett was an American chemist.Bartlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Indianapolis. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1928. After his graduation from Harvard with James Bryant Conant, Bartlett worked at the Rockefeller Institute and the University of...
.
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 a Fulbright Fellowship, Alfred P. SloanAlfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...
Fellowship, a J.J. Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 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.
Synopsis of research and publications
Several of his twelve monographMonograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s are collaborations with Nobel Laureates J.A. Pople
John Pople
Sir John Anthony Pople, KBE, FRS, was a Nobel-Prize winning theoretical chemist. Born in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, England, he attended Bristol Grammar School. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1943. He received his B. A. in 1946. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked at the Bristol...
, H.C. Brown and G.A. Olah
George Andrew Olah
George Andrew Olah is an American chemist. His research involves the generation and reactivity of carbocations via superacids. For this research, Olah was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994...
. In his research, Schleyer has made contributions in the area of synthesis of adamantane
Adamantane
Adamantane is a colorless, crystalline chemical compound with a camphor-like odor. With a formula C10H16, it is a cycloalkane and also the simplest diamondoid. Adamantane molecules consist of three cyclohexane rings arranged in the "armchair" configuration. It is unique in that it is both rigid...
and other cage molecules by rearrangement mechanisms. He also discovered new types of hydrogen bonding. Schleyer also identified solvolysis
Solvolysis
Solvolysis is a special type of nucleophilic substitution or elimination where the nucleophile is a solvent molecule. For certain nucleophiles, there are specific terms for the type of solvolysis reaction...
mechanisms, including reactive intermediates.
As a pioneer in the field of computational chemistry
Computational chemistry
Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses principles of computer science to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses the results of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into efficient computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules and solids...
, Schleyer identified a number of new molecular structures, especially related to lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
chemistry and electron deficient systems. He has further contributed to a gamut of topics in organometallic chemistry, physical organic chemistry
Physical organic chemistry
Physical organic chemistry is the study of the interrelationships between structure and reactivity in organic molecules. It can be seen as the study of organic chemistry using tools of physical chemistry such as chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, thermochemistry, and quantum chemistry...
, inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the properties and behavior of inorganic compounds. This field covers all chemical compounds except the myriad organic compounds , which are the subjects of organic chemistry...
and other theoretical chemical fields. His current research as of 2006 is rejuvenating interest in aromaticity and investigating planar hypercoordination of carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
.
Honors
Beyond the fellowships noted above, Schleyer has received numerous prestigious honors including:- University of LyonUniversity of LyonThe University of Lyon , located in Lyon and Saint Etienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 16 institutions of higher education...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Dr. Honoris Causa, (1971) - Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Fellow (1984)
- German Chemical Society Adolf-von-Baeyer-PrizeAdolf von BaeyerJohann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer was a German chemist who synthesized indigo, and was the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Born in Berlin, he initially studied mathematics and physics at Berlin University before moving to Heidelberg to study chemistry with Robert Bunsen...
(1986)) - American Chemical SocietyAmerican Chemical SocietyThe American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic ChemistryOrganic chemistryOrganic 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...
(1987) - Hungarian Chemical Society (1987)
- Heisenberg Medal (1987)
- World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, President (1987)
- Royal Society of ChemistryRoyal Society of ChemistryThe Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Christopher K. IngoldChristopher Kelk IngoldSir Christopher Kelk Ingold FRS was a British chemist based in Leeds and London. His groundbreaking work in the 1920s and 1930s on reaction mechanisms and the electronic structure of organic compounds was responsible for the introduction into mainstream chemistry of concepts such as nucleophile,...
Medal (1988) - American Chemical SocietyAmerican Chemical SocietyThe American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
Cope Scholar Award (1971) - Belgian Chemical Society Merck-Schuchardt Chair (1991)
- International Academy of Quantum Molecular ScienceInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular ScienceThe International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science is an international scientific learned society covering all applications of quantum theory to chemistry and chemical physics. It was created in Menton in 1967. The founding members were Raymond Daudel, Per-Olov Löwdin, Robert G. Parr, John...
, Fellow (1992) - BundesverdienstkreuzBundesverdienstkreuzThe Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...
am Bande (1993) - University of Munich, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Dr. Honoris Causa (1998) - National Technical University of Ukraine "KPI"Kiev Polytechnic InstituteThe National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” is a major university in Kiev, Ukraine.-History:The institute was founded in 1898. At that time it had four departments: Mechanical, Chemical, Agricultural, and Civil Engineering. The first enrolment constituted 360 students...
, KievKievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Honorary professor (1998) - German Chemical Society Arfvedson Schlenk Prize (1999)
- Polish Chemical Society and the University of WarsawUniversity of WarsawThe University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...
, Kolos MedalKolos MedalThe Kołos Medal is a prestigious medal awarded every 2 years by the University of Warsaw and the Polish Chemical Society for distinction in theoretical or experimental physical chemistry. It was established in 1998 to commemorate the life and career of Włodzimierz Kołos, one of the founding fathers...
(2002) - University of Marburg, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Dr. Honoris Causa (2011)