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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 14
Issue 3 (2009) pp 118-129
Dwaine O. Cowan (1935–2006): The Father of Organic Conductors and Superconductors
George B. Kauffman
Department of Chemistry, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-8034, georgek@csufresno.edu
Published online: 6 June 2009
Abstract. Dwaine O. Cowan, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University, who designed, synthesized, and characterized the first “organic metals,” died on May 5, 2006 in Clovis, California after a long illness. One of the dominant, world-renowned figures in physical organic chemistry for more than three decades, he was considered the father of “organic conductors and superconductors,” a burgeoning new area of interdisciplinary science. His life and work and its possible applications are discussed in this article.
Key Words: Chemistry and History; physical organic chemistry; organic conductors and superconductors; organic metals; physics; materials science; chemical education; mechanistic organic photochemistry; electron transfer reactions; organometallic compounds; synthetic metals; photoelectron spectroscopy; mixed valence compounds; selenium and tellurium compounds; ferrocene
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: georgek@csufresno.edu)
Article in PDF format (660 KB) HTML format new file uploaded 11-4-09 minor changes
Issue date: June
6, 2009
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