Robert Grubbs

Robert Howard Grubbs (February 27, 1942 – December 19, 2021) was an American chemist. He won Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005.

 Personal life 
In his Nobel Prize autobiography nobelprize.org he says, "In some places, my birthplace is listed as Calvert City, Kentucky and in others Possum Trot (both in Marshall County). I was actually born between the two, so either one really is correct." He spent his early childhood in Marshall County and attended public school at McKinley Elementary, Franklin Junior High and Paducah Tilghman High School in Paducah, Kentucky. Grubbs studied chemistry at the University of Florida where he was awarded a B.S. and an M.S.. He worked with Merle Battiste in Florida University, and Columbia University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1968. He was taught by Ronald Breslow in Columbia. 

He next spent a year with James Collman at Stanford University. He was then made part of the faculty at Michigan State University. In 1978 he moved to California Institute of Technology where he still works as the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry. 

His main interest is for organometallic chemistry and organic chemistry. These interests are for catalysts, such as Grubbs' catalyst for olefin metathesis and ring-opening metathesis polymerization and norbornene. He also produced some important work on "living polymerization".

Grubbs died from a heart attack while receiving lymphoma treatment at a hospital in Duarte, California on December 19, 2021, at age 79.

 Awards 
 Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1974-76)
 Camille and  Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1975-78)
 Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship  (1975)
 ACS Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry (2000)
 ACS Herman F. Mark Polymer  Chemistry Award (2000)
 ACS Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in  Synthetic Methods (2001)
 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2005)
 He was made part of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.

Grubbs received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Richard R. Schrock and Yves Chauvin, for his work in the field of olefin metathesis.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Web page at Caltech 
 Chemistry laureates 2005 site
 Autobiography at Nobel Chemistry Laureates site
 Biography @ University of Missouri-St. Louis 
 Thomson prediction Nobel prize 2005
 Robert H Grubbs U.S. Patents 
 Materia Inc. The Company that sells and developes the technology.

Category:1942 births
Category:2021 deaths
Category:Academics from Michigan
Category:American autobiographers
Category:American chemists
Category:American Nobel Prize winners
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Scientists from Kentucky
Category:University of Florida alumni
Category:California Institute of Technology faculty
Category:Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners