Ipatiev, Vladimir

Ipatiev (or Ipatieff), Vladimir (Nikolaevich) (1867–1952) chemist; born in Moscow, Russia. As an officer in the Russian army he taught chemistry in St. Petersburg (1898–1906) and headed Russia's chemical warfare program in World War I. He established new means of synthesizing isoprene, the first synthesis of a basic monomer of rubber (1892–96); he was the first to synthesize methane from carbon and hydrogen; he applied high pressure to organic reactions, developing methods of separating metals from water (1909). He came to the United States in 1930 and as director of Northwestern University's Catalytic High Pressure Laboratory (1931–35) he developed a process for making high-octane gasoline. He held over 200 patents.