Nobel Committee

Another event that stands out in my memory was the Nobel Lecture I gave before the Swedish Academy of Sciences, chaired by Professor Kerstin Fredga, its President and the leading Swedish space scientist. She is the daughter of the late Arne Fredga, a chemistry professor and long-time member of the Nobel Committee and the Nobel Fonndation. I had known him and visited him in Uppsala years before thus it was even more of a personal pleasure to meet his daughter. The only formal... 

Although Sakliarov won the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, and was the only Sordet ever to win it, he was barred from leaving Russia to receive it. The Nobel Committee s official citation praised Sakharov for his fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles for peace Uncompromisingly... 

See brochure of Nobel Committees for Physics and Chemistry, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, List of the Nobel Prize Laureates 1901-1994, Alm-quist Wiksell Tryckeri Uppsala, Sweden, 1995. 

Nobel Foundation Records. Reports to the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine for its 1945, 1946, and 1948 prizes, Stockholm, Sweden. Material from the Nobel Archives was kindly provided by the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. I am indebted to Nichole Sterling for her translation from the Swedish. Source for the key experiment and for Nobel prize nominations 1945-1948. 

In 1967, Bengt Lindberg was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was a member of the Nobel committee for chemistry between 1974 and 1987. He presented the prize winners of 1979 (Herbert Brown and Georg Wittig) and the prize winner of 1984 (Bruce Merrifield). He received a number of Swedish awards for his scientific contributions, including the Celsius medal (1985). He was awarded the Haworth Memorial Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry (1981) and was the first non-American to receive the Hudson Award from the American Chemical Society (1983). 

Letter from Christopher Ingold to Prevost, dated 29 July 1946 and a letter from the Secretary of the Nobel Committees of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences to Prevost, dated 16 January 16 1954. Copies of these letters were given to me by Constantin Georgoulis, who completed a doctoral dissertation at Paris in 1960 on the kinetic study of reaction schemas for allylic transpositions, under the direction of Prevost. Another of Georgoulis s teachers was Paul Job, cousin of Andre Job. 

Phenolic resins. The oldest condensation reaction on record is between phenol and formaldehyde to produce phenolics. Professor Adolf von Baeyer first documented the reaction in 1872, for which the Nobel Committee awarded him their prize in 1905. Thirty years later, a technical application of this reaction was worked out by Dr. Leo Baekeland, when he showed that useful moldings can be made by carrying out the final stages of the reaction under pressure. As his reward, phenolic resins are still often called Bakelite, a seemingly better deal chan Baeyer s. At one time, phenolics were the workhorse of the plastics industry. 

Per Teodor Cleve, 1840—1905. Professor of chemistry at Upsala. Chairman of the Nobel Committee for chemistry. Cleve and Nils Abraham Langlet were independent discoverers of terrestrial helium. Sir William Ramsay s announcement was made before their research was completed. 

The pertinent part of the story thus lies between 1915 and 1940. In order to appreciate it, we must detail some aspects of Gomberg s discovery, know a deal about the Nobel committee for chemistry and its decision-making procedures as laid down by the statutes and by internal rules, and see how Gomberg s work was analyzed and judged in the light of this complex system of rules. In the process, we will also deal with a few other pioneers of radical chemistry and their relationship to the Nobel institution, namely W. Schlenk, F. Paneth and, briefly, M.S. Kharasch. 

Vt e have described some aspects of the chemistry upon which Gomberg and Schlenk were to be judged by the Nobel committee for chemistry. Now it is time to examine the committee and its work. 

It should be stressed that this inquiry about the fate of the pioneers of free radical chemistry in the hands of the Nobel committee is based solely on a search of the Nobel Archive of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. Although in principle no other written material, such as letters exchanged between committee members, should exist outside the archives (Section 8 in the Special Regulations at that time stated The proceedings, verdicts and proposals of the Nobel-Committees with reference to the prize-distribution shall not be published or in any other way be made known , much later to be replaced by the rule that the Nobel Archive should be made available for research of material fifty years old), it cannot be dismissed that such material with relation to free radical chemistry may possibly be found. The many references to correspondence between commit-... 

Academy Report. (1915). General report from the Nobel Committee for Chemistry to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In Minutes concerning the Nobelprizes, The Nobel Archive of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm. 

W. Bregger to Nobel Committee, December 20, 1928, Pro Memoria 1929. Nobel Archive, Stockholm. 1 thank the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for access to the Nobel sources. 

W. Hieber to Nobel Committee, January 10, 1930, Pro Memoria 1930. Nobel Archive. 

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