Owen Webster
Owen Wright Webster | |
---|---|
Devil's Lake, North Dakota | |
Died | April 13, 2018 | (aged 89)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Institutions | DuPont |
Owen Wright Webster (March 25, 1929 – April 13, 2018) was a distinguished member of the organic and polymer chemistry communities. His polymerization technique for making block copolymer dispersing agents is used by DuPont to make ink-jet printer inks.[1]
Born in
Webster’s early research activities at du Pont involved synthesis of cyanocarbons. His seminal discoveries in this area ranged from tetracyanoethylene oxide,[2] which adds to olefins through its carbon-carbon bond; hexacyanobutadiene,[3] with an oxidation potential near that of bromine; pentacyanocyclopentadiene,[4] an acid as strong as perchloric acid; diiminosuccinonitrile,[5] a remarkable adduct of cyanogen and hydrogen cyanide; and diazodicyanoimidazole,[6] which cleaves to a carbene that forms a bromo ylide with bromobenzene. In other organic research he showed that diazonium compounds undergo 2+4 cycloaddition to dienes.[7]
In the latter half of his stay at DuPont he switched to polymer science where he invented
His polymer work led the prestigious American Chemical Society award for Applied Polymer Science in 1993. After a brief period as research supervisor in the 1980s, he accepted a position as duPont Fellow. Shortly before retirement duPont honored him with its highest technical award, the Lavoisier Medal.
Honors and awards
- 1993 American Chemical Society award for Applied Polymer Science
- 1995 Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists[11]
- 1996 Lavoisier Medal from DuPont
References
- ^ "Owen Webster". The News Journal. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society (1963), 85(13), 2032-3
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society (1964), 86(14), 2898-902
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society (1965), 87(8), 1820-1.
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society (1971), 93(19), 4953-5.
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society 1973), 95(8), 2695-7.
- ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society (1975), 97(18), 5291-3.
- ^ Macromolecules (1987), 20(7), 1473-88.
- ^ [Macromolecules (1992), 25(21), 5561-72
- ^ Makromolekulare Chemie, Macromolecular Symposia (1992), 54/55(Int. Symp. New Polym. React. React. Mech., 1991), 477-82. Macromolecular Reports (1994), A31(Suppl. 6&7), 935-42.
- ^ "Chemical Pioneer Award". American Institute of Chemists. Retrieved 30 November 2015.