Herbert C. Brown Borane Lectures

Herbert C. Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London, England on May 22, 1912. His family moved to the United States in June of 1914. Brown attended Wright Junior College and the University of Chicago, from which he obtained his Ph.D. in 1938. Jobs being scarce, Brown remained at the University of Chicago as an instructor, leaving in 1943 to accept a position as an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In 1946 he was promoted to associate professor, but left the following year for Purdue University, where he was professor of inorganic chemistry. Brown remained at Purdue for the remainder of his academic career and was made Professor Emeritus in 1978, a position that he held until his death. Brown was named the 1979 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and among his other honors and awards were the National Medal of Science (1969), the Priestley Medal (1981), the Perkin Medal (1982) and the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences. Herbert C. Brown died in Lafayette, Indiana on December 19, 2004.