Paul von Ragué Schleyer

  Paul von Ragué Schleyer is an organic physical chemist. A 1997 survey indicated Schleyer to be the world's third most cited chemist, with over 1100 technical papers produced. He was Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, Professor Emeritus and co-director of the Organic Institute at Erlangen University in Germany, and is currently Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. He has published twelve books in the fields of lithium chemistry, ab initio molecular orbital theory and carbonium ions. He is past president of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, a fellow of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry.

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Early life

Born on February 27, 1930 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was graduated Valedictorian from Cleveland West Technical High School in 1947. Schleyer received the A.B. degree from Princeton University in 1951 Magna Cum Laude; he earned his PhD degree from Harvard University in 1957, having studied under P.D. Bartlett.

Princeton University years

Schleyer began teaching at Princeton in 1954 and became Higgins Professor of Chemistry. Working within Frick Laboratory he was energetic in both teaching as well as research. While at princeton he married Inga Venema in 1969. During these years he was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, J.J. Guggenheim Fellowship and von Humboldt Special Fellowship. At Princeton he was always present in his combination laboratory/office until late in the evening, available to help his students untangle problems with experiments, as he tirelessly worked on his own research amid uncountable stacks of manuscripts and books.

Synopsis of research and publications

Several of his twelve monographs are collaborations with Nobel Laureates: J.A. Pople, H.C. Brown and G.A. Olah. In his research Schleyer has made contributions in synthesis of adamantane and other cage molecules by rearrangement mechanisms; he has discovered new types of hydrogen bonding; and he has identified solvolysis mechanisms including reactive intermediates.

As a pioneer in the field of computational chemistry, Schleyer identified a number of new molecular structures, especially related to lithium chemistry and electron deficient systems. He has further contributed to a gamut of topics in organometallic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry and other theoretical chemical fields. His current research as of 2006 is rejuvenating interest in aromaticity and investigating planar hypercoordination of carbon.

Honors

Beyond the fellowships noted above, Schleyer has received numerous prestigious honors including:

• University of Lyon, France Dr. Honoris Causa, (1971)
• Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Fellow (1984)
• German Chemical Society Adolf-von-Baeyer-Prize (1986))
• American Chemical Society James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry (1987)
• Hungarian Chemical Society (1987)
• Heisenberg Medal (1987)
• World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, President (1987)
• Royal Society of Chemistry, London, Christopher K. Ingold Medal (1988)
• American Chemical Society Cope Scholar Award (1971)
• Belgian Chemical Society Merck-Schuchardt Chair (1991)
• International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, Fellow (1992)
• Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) (1993)
• University of Munich, Germany, Dr. Honoris Causa (1998)
• National technical University of the Ukraine, Kiev, Honorary professor (1998)
• German Chemical Society Arfvedson Schlenk Prize (1999)
• Polish Chemical Society and the University of Warsaw, Kolos Medal (2002)