46 Facts About Frank Westheimer

Frank Westheimer taught at the University of Chicago from 1936 to 1954, and at Harvard University from 1953 to 1983, becoming the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry in 1960, and Professor Emeritus in 1983.

The Westheimer medal was established in his honor in 2002.

Frank Westheimer did pioneering work in physical organic chemistry, applying techniques from physical to organic chemistry and integrating the two fields.

Frank Westheimer explored the mechanisms of chemical and enzymatic reactions, and made fundamental theoretical advances.

Frank Henry Westheimer was born on January 15,1912, to Henry F Westheimer and Carrie C Westheimer of Baltimore, Maryland.

Frank Westheimer went on to Harvard University, where he earned his masters in chemistry in 1933 and his doctorate in chemistry in 1935.

Frank Westheimer came to Harvard hoping to do research with James Bryant Conant.

When told that Conant would not take on new students, Frank Westheimer outwaited him and was finally accepted as his last graduate student.

Nonetheless, Conant's interactions with Frank Westheimer had a lasting effect, impressing Frank Westheimer with the need "to do important things".

In 1935 and 1936, as a National Research Council Fellow, Westheimer worked with physical chemist Louis P Hammett at Columbia University.

Frank Westheimer taught at the University of Chicago from 1936 to 1954, and at Harvard University from 1953 to 1983.

Frank Westheimer served as chairman of the chemistry department at Harvard from 1959 to 1962.

Frank Westheimer became the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry at Harvard in 1960.

Frank Westheimer retired from teaching to become Professor Emeritus in 1983, and retired from research in 1988.

Frank Westheimer's first academic appointment was an independent Research Associateship at the University of Chicago, from 1936 to 1937.

Frank Westheimer became an instructor in 1937 and a Professor in 1948.

Frank Westheimer worked with Kirkwood on problems in organic chemistry involving electrostatics.

Frank Westheimer related electrostatics to their effects on the properties of organic compounds.

Kirkwood and Frank Westheimer published four classical papers developing fundamental ideas in enzymology about the theory of the electrostatic influence of substituents on the dissociation constants of organic acids.

Frank Westheimer was a supervisor at the Explosives Research Laboratory in Bruceton, Pennsylvania.

Frank Westheimer did research on nitric acid, discovering a new acidity function for nitration reactions.

Frank Westheimer hesitated to discuss his work on the triphenyl carbinol series with physical chemists because of the secrecy requirements of the project.

Frank Westheimer was influenced by the development of statistical mechanics by physicists Joseph Edward Mayer and Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who moved to the University of Chicago in 1945.

Frank Westheimer applied the principles of statistical mechanics to the structure of organic molecules, to better understand the ways in which molecules are assembled from atoms.

In 1943, Frank Westheimer began publishing on the mechanisms of chromic acid oxidations, publishing a "masterly review" of the area in 1949.

Frank Westheimer joined the project and helped develop an explanation based on the idea of enantiotopicity to explain how the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase removed hydrogen from the alcohol molecule, enabling the body to metabolize alcohol.

Frank Westheimer designed additional experiments that proved their initial conjecture and established the isotope-based chirality of enzymes.

In 1953, soon after completing the work on alcohol dehydrogenase, Frank Westheimer moved to Harvard University.

Frank Westheimer continued his interest in reaction mechanisms, isotopes and oxidation.

In 1955, Frank Westheimer published the first of many articles on the chemistry of phosphate esters and phosphorus derivatives.

Frank Westheimer proposed that ATP transfers phosphate through a reactive monomeric metaphosphate species.

The Melander-Frank Westheimer postulate has successfully predicted the ways in which KIEs and transition state structures vary.

Frank Westheimer introduced the idea of photoaffinity labeling of the active site of proteins.

Frank Westheimer approached the reactions of phosphate transfer through mechanisms that involve five-coordinate intermediates.

In 1968, Frank Westheimer examined pseudorotation in phosphate ester chemistry and predicted the occurrence of pseudo-rotation of oxyphosphoranes.

Frank Westheimer showed the significance of this route and the importance of stereochemical rearrangements of the intermediates.

Frank Westheimer developed a set of guidelines, based on experimental observations, known as Frank Westheimer's rules.

Frank Westheimer became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1954, a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1976, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London in 1983.

Frank Westheimer chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee for the Survey of Chemistry from 1964 to 1965.

Chemistry: Opportunities and Needs, known as the "Frank Westheimer Report", encouraged the federal government to increase spending on fundamental research in chemistry, to achieve parity with other physical sciences.

Frank Westheimer was a member of President Lyndon Johnson's science advisory committee from 1967 to 1970.

Frank Westheimer was aware of environmental issues, supporting measures to decrease pollution, combat global warming, increase energy conservation, and develop alternative energy sources.

Frank Westheimer advocated that science needed to be taught in new ways, to better educate nonscientists about scientific issues.

Frank Westheimer enjoyed going on to new challenges more than exploiting the large new areas that he had opened up.

The Frank Westheimer medal was established in his honor in 2002.

Frank H Westheimer was married in 1937 to Jeanne E Friedman.