Sandwich Compounds of Transition Metals: A Retrospective View of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921-1996) on the 10th Anniversary of His Death

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 11 Issue 5 (2006) pp 334-344

Sandwich Compounds of Transition Metals: A Retrospective View of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996) on the 10th Anniversary of His Death

George B. Kauffman

Department of Chemistry, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-8034, georgek@csufresno.edu

Published online: 1 October 2006

Abstract. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996), who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Ernst Otto Fischer (b. 1918) “for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so-called sandwich compounds,” this article recounts Wilkinson’s life and achievements with an emphasis on his work on organometallic compounds, his coauthorship of the bestselling inorganic text, “Cotton and Wilkinson,” and his other services to inorganic chemistry, including his founding of Polyhedron: The International Journal for Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry (1981).

Key Words: Chemistry and History; biography; nobel laureates; inorganic chemistry; organometallic chemistry; sandwich compounds

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: georgek@csufresno.edu)

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