Howard Zimmerman
Howard E. Zimmerman ( born July 5, 1926 in New York City; † February 12, 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin ) was an American chemist. He was considered a pioneer in organic photochemistry.
Zimmerman studied by military service in World War II as a tank gunner chemistry at Yale University with a bachelor's degree in 1950 with honors ( he was awarded the Chittenden Award from Yale ) and the PhD in 1953. As a post - graduate student, he worked for Robert B. Woodward at Harvard University. In 1954, he was Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, 1960 Associate Professor and later a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. From 1990 he was Hilldale and AC Cope Professor of Chemistry.
He dealt theoretically with the use of quantum mechanics to photoreactions. He was known for his teaching skills and he gave for the American Chemical Society courses in molecular orbital theory and quantum chemistry. He organized the Symposium on Photochemistry of IUPAC in 1972 in Baden -Baden and five Pacifichem symposia.
His research had applications in organic synthesis, for example, his elucidation of the mechanism of the di- pi- methane rearrangement 1967.
In 1976 he received the James Flack Norris Award in 1991 and the Arthur Cope Award of the American Chemical Society, 1980, Halpern Award of the New York Academy of Sciences, and in 1985 the Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists. In 1988 he received the Humboldt Research Award. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1980).
Writings
- Quantum mechanics for organic chemists, Academic Press 1975
- Five Decades of mechanistic and exploratory organic photochemistry, Pure and Applied Chemistry, 78, 2006 2193-2203
- Some Theoretical Aspects of Organic Photochemistry, Accounts of Chemical Research, 10, 1982, 312-317.
- Diego Armesto Synthetic Aspects of the di- π - methane rearrangement, Chemical Reviews 96, 1996, 3065-3112.