Roger Adams
| Roger Adams | |
|---|---|
Roger Adams
|
|
| Born |
January 2, 1889 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | July 6, 1971 (aged 82) Urbana, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Organic Chemistry |
| Institutions |
University of Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor |
H.A. Torrey, Charles Loring Jackson |
| Doctoral students | Ernest H. Volwiler, Samuel M. McElvain, Wallace Carothers, William Edward Hanford |
| Known for | Adams' catalyst |
| Notable awards |
Elliott Cresson Medal (1944) Davy Medal (1945) Priestley Medal (1946) Perkin Medal (1954) |
Roger Adams (January 2, 1889 – July 6, 1971) was an American organic chemist. He is best known for the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and his work did much to determine the composition of naturally occurring substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids. As the Department Head of Chemistry at the University of Illinois from 1926 to 1954, he also greatly influenced graduate education in America, taught over 250 Ph.D. students and postgraduate students, and served the U.S. as a scientist at the highest levels during World War I and World War II.
Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in a prosperous neighborhood in South Boston, the last child in a gifted family that included Adams's three older sisters (two went to Radcliffe College and one to Smith College). Adams was part of the prominent Adams family, and was descended from John Adams's grandfather.
Adams attending Boston Latin School and Cambridge Latin High School (now called Cambridge Rindge and Latin). In 1900, the family moved to Cambridge, which was closer to the two colleges.
Adams entered Harvard University in 1905 and completed the requirements for a bachelor's degree in three years. In his first year, he earned a John Harvard Honorary Scholarship by getting four As, and in his last year he took advanced courses and began research in organic chemistry under H.A. Torrey. His years at Harvard were undistinguished, earning high grades in chemistry (his major) and mining (his minor). After graduation from Harvard in 1909 he worked towards his Ph.D. at Radcliffe College supported by a teaching assistantship. Torrey died unexpectedly in 1910, so Adams finished his Ph.D. under Charles Loring Jackson, George Shannon Forbes, and Latham Clarke. In 1912 he was initiated as a brother of Alpha Chi Sigma at Omicron Chapter at Harvard. As an outstanding Ph.D. of 1912, Adams received a Parker Traveling Scholarship for 1912 and 1913, which he used to work at the laboratory of Emil Fischer and Otto Diels in Berlin, Germany and that of Richard Willstätter in Dahlem outside of Berlin.
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