Geoffrey Wilkinson 1249023 226036230 2008-07-16T15:23:05Z Emerson7 191157 copyediting; cleanup {{Infobox_Scientist | name = Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson | image = Replace this image male.svg | imagesize = 180px | birth_date = {{birth date|1921|6|14}} | birth_place = [[Springside]], [[England]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1996|9|26|1921|6|14}} | death_place = [[London]], [[England]] | nationality = [[United Kingdom]] | field = [[Inorganic chemistry]] | work_institution = [[Harvard University]]<br>[[Imperial College London|Imperial College]] | alma_mater = [[Imperial College London|Imperial College]] | doctoral_advisor = [[Henry Vincent Aird Briscoe]] | doctoral_students= | known_for = | prizes = [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1973) }} '''Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson''' ([[14 July]] [[1921]] &ndash; [[26 September]], [[1996]]) was an [[England|English]] [[chemist]]. ==Biography== Wilkinsonwas born in the village of [[Springside]], near [[Todmorden]] in [[Yorkshire]]. His father, also a Geoffrey, was a master house painter and decorator; his mother worked in a local cotton mill. One of his uncles, an organist and choirmaster, had married into a family that owned a small chemical company making Epsom and Glauber's salts for the pharmaceutical industry. This is where he first developed an interest in chemistry. He was educated at the local council primary school and, after winning a County Scholarship in 1932, went to [[Todmorden High School|Todmorden Secondary School]]. There, he had the same [[physics]] teacher as Sir [[John Cockcroft]], who received a [[Nobel Prize]] for “splitting the atom”. [[Image:Wilkinson's-catalyst-no-hydrogens-3D-balls.png|thumb|left|[[Wilkinson Catalyst|Wilkinson's catalyst]] RhCl(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub>]] In 1939 he obtained a Royal Scholarship for study at [[Imperial College London|Imperial College]], London, from where he graduated in 1941. In 1942 Professor [[Friedrich Adolf 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 [[Berkeley, California]], 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 [[olefin]]s. He was then at the [[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 [[proton]]s in [[cobalt]], but had already begun to work on olefin complexes. In June 1955 he was appointed to the chair of Inorganic Chemistry at [[Imperial College London|Imperial College]] in the [[University of London]], and from then on worked almost entirely on the complexes of transition metals. He was married, with two daughters. ==Work== [[Image:Ferrocene 3d model 1.png|thumb|Structure of [[ferrocene]] Fe(C<sub>5</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>2</sub>]] He is well known for his invention of [[Wilkinson Catalyst|Wilkinson's catalyst]] RhCl(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub>, and for the discovery of the structure of [[ferrocene]]. Wilkinson's catalyst is used industrially in the [[hydrogenation]] of [[alkenes]] to [[alkanes]]. He received many awards, including the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize]] for Chemistry in 1973 for his work on “[[organometallic compound]]s” (with [[Ernst Otto Fischer]]). He is also well known for writing, with [[F. Albert Cotton]], "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", often referred to simply as "Cotton and Wilkinson", one of the standard inorganic chemistry textbooks. ==References== *{{cite journal | title=Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson. 14 July 1921-26 September 1996 | author=M. L. H. Green; W. P. Griffith | journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume=46 | issue= | pages=594–606 | year=2000 | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4606%28200011%2946%3C594%3ASGW1J1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N}} *{{cite journal | title=Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson 1921-1996 In Memoriam | author=Abel, E. | journal=Inorganic Chemistry | volume=35 | issue=26 | pages=7463–7464 | year=1996 | url= | doi=10.1021/ic961299i}} == External links == * Wilkinson's [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1973/wilkinson-autobio.html Nobel Foundation biography] * Wilkinson's Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1973/wilkinson-lecture.pdf The Long Search for Stable Transition Metal Alkyls] * [http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/index.rss Video podcast of Wilkinson talking about organometallic chemistry] * [http://www.patentgenius.com/inventor/WilkinsonGeoffrey.html Geoffrey Wilkinson Patents] {{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}} {{Lifetime|1921|1996|Wilkinson, Geoffrey}} [[Category:Alumni of Imperial College London]] [[Category:Academics of Imperial College London]] [[Category:English chemists]] [[Category:English Nobel laureates]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]] [[Category:People from Todmorden]] [[ar:جوفري ولكنسون]] [[ca:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[de:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[es:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[fi:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[fr:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[it:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[ja:ジェフリー・ウィルキンソン]] [[nl:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[pl:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[pt:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[ro:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[ru:Уилкинсон, Джефри]] [[sv:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[sw:Geoffrey Wilkinson]] [[zh:杰弗里·威尔金森]]