F. Albert Cotton

Frank Albert Cotton, named Albert ( Al ) Cotton ( born April 9, 1930 in Philadelphia, † 20 February 2007 ) was an American chemist.

Life

Cotton studied at Drexel University and Temple University (Bachelor 1951) and in 1955 Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard University, a PhD (via metallocenes ). He then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was professor in 1961 (which remained a record at MIT is ). He became a professor at Texas A & M University, most recently as WT Doherty Welch Foundation Professor and Head of the Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding 1972.

Cotton is known for his work on the chemistry of transition metals, organometallic compounds and metal clusters, crystal field theory, metal-metal bonds, and for his textbooks. He is the author or co- author of more than 1600 publications. He was chairman of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. He had over 100 students.

In 1982 he received the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in 2000 and 1998, the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society. Next he received the Lavoisier Medal, the Paracelsus price, the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences and the Robert A. Welch price. In 1990 he received the King Faisal Prize. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and several foreign academies, including the Academie des Sciences. He has 29 honorary doctorates.

He was married in 1959 and had two daughters. His death resulted from a head injury after a fall led to investigations as a first heart attack was accepted and he was several months in a coma.

Writings

  • Chemical applications of group theory, Wiley 1990
  • With Geoffrey Wilkinson Fundamentals of inorganic chemistry Wiley 1990 ISBN 3-527-26686-0

Pictures of F. Albert Cotton

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