Fred Tebbe
| Frederick Nye Tebbe | |
|---|---|
Fred Tebbe in late 1980
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| Born |
March 20, 1935 Oakland, California |
| Died | September 28, 1995 (aged 60) Hockessin, Delaware |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University, University of Indiana |
| Known for | Tebbe's reagent, borane chemistry |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Manzer |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Organometallic Chemistry |
| Institutions | DuPont Central Research |
| Thesis | Studies of Interconversions of Boron Hydrides (1963) |
| Doctoral advisor | Riley Schaeffer |
| Influences | George Parshall |
| Influenced | Richard Schrock |
Frederick Nye Tebbe was a chemist known for his work on organometallic chemistry. Tebbe was born in Oakland, California on March 20, 1935. His father, Charles L. Tebbe, worked for the United States Forest Service so Fred’s early education took place in Montana, Oregon, Maryland and Pennsylvania. He married Margaret Manzer in 1960, and they had a son (Andy, born in 1966) and a daughter (Sarah, born in 1971). He died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Delaware on September 28, 1995.
Fred obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. His senior research focused on the synthesis of diboron tetrachloride from BCl3 and Hg discharge cells under the direction of Professor Thomas Wartik. Wartik encouraged Fred to join the group of Professor Riley Schaeffer at Indiana University. Instead, Fred spent a year at Montana State University studying psychology and philosophy: After this interlude and thoughts of going into Forestry, Fred finally decided to join Schaeffer at Indiana.
The area of borane chemistry was growing rapidly, in part due to the Cold War and national security interests. In addition to the synthesis of pyrophoric and explosive compounds, Fred used 10B NMR spectroscopy to understand the mechanism of the aggregation of boranes into the homologs B4H10, B5H9, and B5H11. He demonstrated that 10B-enriched diborane in diethylether rapidly exchanges all ten boron positions in the anion B10H13−. His dissertation, “Studies of Interconversions of Boron Hydrides,” was completed in 1963.
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