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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 23
(2018) pp 87-89
John D. Roberts, 1918–2016, An Obituary-Tribute
George B. Kauffman*
Department of Chemistry, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-8034, georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu
Published: 12 May 2018
Abstract. John
D. (“Jack”) Roberts, Institute Professor Emeritus and former Provost at the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), died on October 29, 2016 of
complications of a stroke at the age of 98. He and his wife, Edith, made a big
impact on the Caltech campus. An outstanding pioneer in physical chemistry, he
introduced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to organic chemistry,
permitting chemists to determine the structures of complex biological
molecules. He employed radioactive tracers to study thermal rearrangements of
small-ring hydrocarbons to understand better how the reactions proceed on a
mechanistic level. When, in 1956 at the age of 38, he was elected to the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences, he was the youngest member elected at that time.
Key Words: Chemistry and History; physical chemistry
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu)
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