Robert G. Bergman

Robert George Bergman (born May 23, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American chemist.

Robert Bergman was born as the son of Joseph J. and Stella Bergman, née Horowitz. In 1963 he graduated from Chemistry at Carleton College. Under the supervision of Jerome A. Berson, he was promoted to the Ph.D. in 1966 at the University of Wisconsin. From 1966 to 1967 he was postdoctoral student at Ronald Breslow's laboratory at Columbia University, New York City. Subsequently, he joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena where he was an Arthur Research Instructor (1967-1969), assistant professor (1969-1971), associate professor (1971-1973) and full professor (1973-1977). From 1977 to 2002 he was a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley and since 1978 he is also a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since 2002 he has been Gerald E. K. Branch Professor of Chemistry.

Bergman works in the field of organic chemistry. He first investigated the reaction mechanisms of organic reactions at Caltech. He developed methods for the representation of very reactive molecules, for example 1,3-diradicals and vinyl cations. In 1972, he discovered the thermal cyclization of cis-1,5-hexadiyne-3-ene to 1,4-dehydrobenzene diradicals known as Bergman cyclization. This reaction played a major role in understanding the mode of action of endiin antibiotics in the 1980s. Since the mid-1970s, Bergman has also been working in the field of organometallic chemistry. He contributed to the synthesis and reaction of organometallic complexes and investigated organometallic compounds with metal-oxygen and metal-nitrogen bonds. He also discovered the first soluble organometallic complexes of the transition metals, to which the addition of a saturated hydrocarbon (C-H activation, C-H insertion) succeeded.

Since June 17, 1965, Bergman has been married to Wendy L. Street. They have two sons, David R. and Michael S. Bergman.

Bergman published more than 400 papers in scientific journals.

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