Papers of Jerome A. Berson

Jerome A. Berson (1924-2017) was an American physical organic chemist. Born in Sanford, Florida on May 10, 1924, Berson earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the City College of New York (1944), then briefly worked at Hoffman-LaRoche, where he worked on penicillin. From 1944 to 1946, he served in the United States Army, where he was assigned to the 29th Medical Laboratory in Calcutta, India. After his military service, Berson resumed his education at Columbia University, earning his A.M. in Chemistry (1947) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1949). At Columbia, he conducted research with American chemist William von Eggers Doering. After earning his Ph.D., Berson served as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (1949-1950), where he conducted research with American organic chemist and future Nobel Laureate Robert Burns Woodward.

In 1950, Berson joined the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Department of Chemistry. He rose through USC’s faculty ranks, serving as Assistant Professor (1950-1953), Associate Professor (1953-1958), and Professor (1958-1963). Berson moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Chemistry in 1963, where served as Professor (1963-1969). In 1969, he joined the faculty of Yale University’s Department of Chemistry, where he served as Professor (1969-1979), Irenee du Pont Professor (1979-1992), and Sterling Professor (1992-1994). At Yale, in addition to his teaching duties and contributions to various committees, Berson also served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry (1971-1974) and Director of the Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1983-1990). He retired from Yale University in 1994 at the rank of Sterling Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Research and Scientist (1994-2017).

Over the course of his career, Berson became a recognized expert in the areas of reaction mechanisms and molecular synthesis. He first started conducting research on reaction mechanisms at USC, studying the pathways by which chemical transformations take place. At Wisconsin-Madison, he studied thermal and carbocationic rearrangements and the role of orbital symmetry in chemical reactions. At Yale, Berson continued to study thermal reactions controlled by orbital symmetry and conducted research on non-Kekule molecules. In his later years, he turned his attention to the history and philosophy of chemistry.

Berson authored numerous articles and papers over the course of his career. He was also the recipient of several awards, including the James Flack Norris Award (1978), the Nichols Medal (1985), the Roger Adams Award (1987), the Arthur C. Cope Award (1992), the Oesper Award (1998) and the Literature Prize of the German Association of Chemical Industry (2000). Berson served on many committees and advisory boards and was an active member of the American Chemical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. He was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jerome A. Berson passed away on January 13, 2017.

Sources

Bergman, Robert and Marc Greenberg. Biographical Memoirs - Jerome A. Berson, 1924-2017. National Academy of Sciences, 2021. - berson-jerome.pdf (nasonline.org)

Oral History Interview with Jerome A. Berson, 2001 March 21, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Papers of Jerome A. Berson, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.