Moses Gomberg

Moses Gomberg ( born February 8, 1866 in Elisavetgrad, now Kirovohrad, † February 12, 1947 in Ann Arbor ) was a Ukrainian -born American chemist.

Life and work

Moses Gomberg comes from a Jewish family from the south Ukraine. He attended from 1878 to 1884, the Nicholas School in Elisavetgrad. As his father Georg Reznikow - Gomberg for political reasons were threatened with arrest, the family immigrated in 1884 to Chicago. There Gomberg studied chemistry at the University of Michigan and received his doctorate in 1894. From 1896 to 1897 he worked in Munich with Adolf von Baeyer and Victor Meyer in Heidelberg.

Gomberg described in 1900 the stable free radical, triphenylmethyl ( trityl radical), which also carries its name. This was the first synthesis of an organic radical and opened the door to a new field of chemistry: radical chemistry.

He was also active in the field of reaction mechanisms.