Science & invention
Herbert C. Brown
1912–2004 · chemist
Nobel Prize–winning chemist of boron compounds who taught at Wayne University in Detroit from 1943 to 1947, early in his career.
- Born
London, England- Died
West Lafayette, Indiana
aged 92- Birth name
- Herbert Brovarnik
- Detroit years
- 1943–1947
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and grew up in Chicago, where he took his degrees at the University of Chicago and stayed on for four years as an instructor. In 1943 he came to Detroit as an assistant professor at Wayne University, today Wayne State University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1946 and left the following year for Purdue University in Indiana, which remained his academic home for the rest of his life. His research on compounds of boron with hydrogen and carbon grew into hydroboration, one of the standard tools chemists use to build organic molecules. For this work he shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Georg Wittig.
Highlights
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1979, shared with Georg Wittig
- Assistant, then associate professor at Wayne University, 1943–1947
- Developed hydroboration, a key reaction in organic synthesis
- National Medal of Science, 1969
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1943–1947
Wayne State University (then Wayne University)
He taught chemistry here as an assistant and then associate professor before moving to Purdue.