Geoffrey Wilkinson

About Geoffrey Wilkinson

Who is it?: Chemist
Birth Day: July 14, 1921
Birth Place: Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, British
Alma mater: Imperial College London (PhD)
Known for: Homogeneous transition metal catalysis
Awards: FRS (1965) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1973) Royal Medal (1981) Ludwig Mond Award (1981) Davy Medal (1996)
Fields: Inorganic chemistry
Institutions: University of California, Berkeley Harvard University Imperial College London
Thesis: Some physico-chemical observations on hydrolysis in the homogeneous vapour phase (1946)
Doctoral advisor: Henry Vincent Aird Briscoe
Doctoral students: Alan Davison Malcolm Green

Geoffrey Wilkinson

Geoffrey Wilkinson was born on July 14, 1921 in Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, British, is Chemist. Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson was an English chemist and educator who was jointly awarded the ‘Nobel Prize in Chemistry’ in 1973 along with German chemist Ernst Otto Fischer for their independent but related pioneering work in metallocenes and other aspects in the field of organometallic chemistry. Through his investigations on the products of atomic fission reactions he was able to discover several new isotopes. He successfully deduced the structure of the newly developed synthesized compound which was called dicyclopentadienyl iron (at present called ferrocene) and displayed that the compound is composed of two carbon rings each of five sides, bound on opposite sides of an iron atom thus forming an organometallic molecule. He carried on with his research in this field and synthesized many other organometallic compounds, also known as ‘sandwich compounds’. The study of metal-to-hydrogen bonding by Wilkinson, especially the discovery of his homogeneous hydrogenation catalyst for alkenes, known as the Wilkinson's Catalyst composed of a rhodium metal complex with the metal center being linked to three large phosphine ligands proved to be of great significance in the field of organic and inorganic chemistry and play a vital role in industrial applications. He worked at the ‘Atomic Energy Project’ in Canada and taught at the ‘Harvard University’, ‘University of California’ at Berkeley, ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’ and ‘Imperial College, London. Apart from ‘Nobel Prize’, he received several awards including ‘ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry’ (1965), the ‘Royal Medal’ (1981) and the ‘Davy Medal’ (1996) among others. In 1965 he was elected a ‘Fellow of the Royal Society’ (FRS) and in 1976 he was honored with the title of Knight.
Geoffrey Wilkinson is a member of Scientists

Does Geoffrey Wilkinson Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Geoffrey Wilkinson has been died on 26 September 1996(1996-09-26) (aged 75)\nLondon, England.

🎂 Geoffrey Wilkinson - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Geoffrey Wilkinson die, Geoffrey Wilkinson was 75 years old.

Popular As Geoffrey Wilkinson
Occupation Scientists
Age 75 years old
Zodiac Sign Leo
Born July 14, 1921 (Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, British)
Birthday July 14
Town/City Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, British
Nationality British

🌙 Zodiac

Geoffrey Wilkinson’s zodiac sign is Leo. According to astrologers, people born under the sign of Leo are natural born leaders. They are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant and extremely difficult to resist, able to achieve anything they want to in any area of life they commit to. There is a specific strength to a Leo and their "king of the jungle" status. Leo often has many friends for they are generous and loyal. Self-confident and attractive, this is a Sun sign capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause, and their healthy sense of humor makes collaboration with other people even easier.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Geoffrey Wilkinson was born in the Year of the Rooster. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rooster are practical, resourceful, observant, analytical, straightforward, trusting, honest, perfectionists, neat and conservative. Compatible with Ox or Snake.

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Awards and nominations:

Wilkinson received many awards, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973 for his work on "organometallic compounds" (with Ernst Otto Fischer). He is also well known for writing, with his former doctoral student F. Albert Cotton, "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", often referred to simply as "Cotton and Wilkinson", one of the standard inorganic chemistry textbooks.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1965. In 1980 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Bath. Imperial College London named a new hall of residence after him, which opened in October 2009. Wilkinson Hall is named in his honour.

Biography/Timeline

1932

He was educated at the local council primary school and, after winning a County Scholarship in 1932, went to Todmorden Grammar School. His physics Teacher there, Luke Sutcliffe, had also taught Sir John Cockcroft, who received a Nobel Prize for "splitting the atom". In 1939 he obtained a Royal Scholarship for study at Imperial College London, from where he graduated in 1941, with his PhD awarded in 1946.

1942

In 1942 Professor Friedrich Paneth was recruiting young chemists for the nuclear Energy project. Wilkinson joined and was sent out to Canada, where he stayed in Montreal and later Chalk River Laboratories until he could leave in 1946. For the next four years he worked with Professor Glenn T. Seaborg at University of California, Berkeley, mostly on nuclear taxonomy. He then became a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to return to his first interest as a student – transition metal complexes of ligands such as carbon monoxide and olefins.

1951

He was at Harvard University from September 1951 until he returned to England in December 1955, with a sabbatical break of nine months in Copenhagen. At Harvard, he still did some nuclear work on excitation functions for protons in cobalt, but had already begun to work on olefin complexes.

1955

In June 1955 he was appointed to the chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial College London, and from then on worked almost entirely on the complexes of transition metals.

1965

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1965. In 1980 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Bath. Imperial College London named a new hall of residence after him, which opened in October 2009. Wilkinson Hall is named in his honour.

1973

Wilkinson received many awards, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973 for his work on "organometallic compounds" (with Ernst Otto Fischer). He is also well known for writing, with his former doctoral student F. Albert Cotton, "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", often referred to simply as "Cotton and Wilkinson", one of the standard inorganic chemistry textbooks.

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