Roald Hoffmann Manuscript Collection

Collection

Identifier: 2024-517

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The Roald Hoffmann Manuscript Collection contains manuscript copies of the following papers authored by Roald Hoffmann: "A Sign of the Times and Law Report" (co-authored with Shira Leibowitz), "Myths in Drug Design," "Making It," "Some Reflections on Science in the Low-Income Economies," "Blue as the Sea,", and "A Limit for the Rain, A Path for Thunderstorms: Issues of Modern Science, Art, and Jewish Tradition." This collection also contains a copy of Hoffmann's 1981 Nobel Lecture "Building Bridges Between Inorganic and Organic Chemistry."

Dates

Creation: 1981-1992

Creator

Hoffmann, Roald (Person)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes and the collection is open to the public.

Copyright Information

The Science History Institute holds copyright to the Roald Hoffmann Manuscript Collection. The researcher assumes full responsibility for all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

Background Note

Roald Hoffman (1937-), birth name Roald Safran, was a Polish-American chemist and Nobel Laureate. Hoffman was born in Złocz̤w, Poland on July 18, 1937 into a Polish-Jewish family. Following the German invasion of Poland during the Second World War, Hoffman's family was placed in a labor camp. After escaping the labor camp and spending eighteen months hiding in the attic of a Ukrainian neighbor from January 1943 to June 1944, Hoffman and his mother moved to Krakow, where his mother remarried and adopted her new husband's surname. Hoffman's biological father died in a labor camp for his involvement in a plot to arm his fellow prisoners.

Following the conclusion of the war, Hoffman graduated from New York City's Stuyvesant High School in 1955. He then received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1958, followed by a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1960. Subsequently Hoffman went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Harvard while working with 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. on the study of molecular orbital theory of polyhedral molecules. Under Lipscomb, Hoffman co-directed the extended the H kel method. In 1965, Hoffman went to Cornell University where he has remained and has become professor emeritus.

Hoffman's professional work has frequently revolved around the research of the electronic structure of stable and unstable molecules, as well as the study of transition states in reactions. Through the observation of organic and inorganic molecules, Hoffman has contributed to the development of semiempirical and nonempirical computational tools and methods, including the extended H kel method used when determining molecular orbitals. Hoffman also collaborated with American organic chemist Robert Burns Woodward in the development of the Woodward-Hoffman rules for elucidating reaction mechanisms and their stereochemistry. This work eventually resulted in Hoffman receiving the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kenichi Fukui. In addition to his many contributions to science, Hoffman is also a published author of several pieces of non-fiction, poetry, and plays.

Sources

Roald Hoffmann Manuscripts, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Extent

0.10 Linear Feet (1 Folder.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Manuscript copies of six papers and a speech authored by Polish-American chemist and Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann.

Acquisition Information

The Roald Hoffmann Manuscript Collection was donated to the Science History Institute by Roald Hoffmann in 2024.

Related Materials

The following related archival collections are preserved at the Science History Institute Archives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Roald Hoffman Nobel Prize in Chemistry Autographed Lecture, Roald Hoffman and Carl Djerassi Signed Play and Articles Collection, and Oral History of Roald Hoffman.

The Roald Hoffman Papers are preserved at the Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in Ithaca, New York.