George C. Pimentel
George Claude Pimentel ( born 2 May 1922 in California, † 18 June 1989 ) was an American chemist, known in particular for his pioneering work on chemical lasers.
Pimentel grew up as the son of French parents in one of the poorer quarters of Los Angeles and studied after high school graduation in 1939 Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles ( completion 1943). During World War II he was briefly in the Manhattan Project in Berkeley, but then changed her - after he realized the objectives of the research - rather to serve in the U.S. Navy on a submarine. After the war he continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, continued and was awarded his doctorate in 1949 at Kenneth S. Pitzer. He spent the rest of his career at Berkeley, where he was professor of chemistry. He was director of the Laboratory of Chemical Dynamics and associate director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In the 1950s he developed the matrix isolation technique to capture free radicals ( by incorporating, for example, in a matrix of solid noble gases at low temperatures), which was thus investigated spectroscopically. He developed methods of infrared spectroscopy and applied them to among other things, the study of the hydrogen bond, about which he wrote a standard work with McClellan.
Pimentel is known as the developer of the first chemical laser ( ie laser, which derive their energy from chemical reactions) in the 1960s.
In 1960 he issued a widely used high school textbook on chemistry with others.
He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of which he was Deputy Director from 1977 to 1980 since 1966. He gave the 1986 Report on Opportunities in Chemistry out ( Pimentel Report). In 1986 he was president of the American Chemical Society.
His laboratory built infrared spectrometer for Mars missions Mariner 6 and 7 and was involved in the evaluation of the measurement results. In 1967, he competed as a scientist for NASA 's astronaut training and graduated in the tests successfully, but was not taken because of a smaller refractive error.
In 1982 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 1985, the National Medal of Science, the 1989 Priestley Medal, 1985, the Franklin Medal in 1986 and the Welch Award. In 1959, he received the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry.
The George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society is named after him.
Writings
- With others ( Editors ): Chemistry - to experimental science, Freeman, San Francisco 1960
- AL McClellan The hydrogen bond, Freeman 1960