Lipscomb, William

Lipscomb, William (Nunn) (1919–  ) physical chemist; born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was affiliated with the California Institute of Technology (1941–50), the University of Minnesota (1950–59), and Harvard (1959). Between 1946–53, he developed new techniques for studying the volatile boron compounds and determined their structure; this work led him to new understandings of chemical bonding and reactivity and stimulated research in a variety of chemical problems. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry (1976).