doctoral_advisor death_place death_date birth_place nationality field work_institutions birth_date known_for prizes article_title name alma_mater
hans von pechmann -lrb- university of tübingen -rrb- oxford 15 march 1952 oxford english chemistry university of oxford 8 may 1873 valency royal medal -lrb- 1937 -rrb- nevil sidgwick
 nevil sidgwick christ church , oxford , university of tübingen
nevil sidgwick

nevil vincent sidgwick frs -lrb- 8 may 1873 , oxford -- 15 march 1952 , oxford -rrb- was an english theoretical chemist who made significant contributions to the theory of valency and chemical bonding .
after a few years at rugby school , sidgwick pursued undergraduate studies at christ church , oxford , and a doctorate at the university of tübingen .
he received the ma from lincoln college , oxford , in october 1901 , and spent almost his entire career in the city of his birth , becoming a fellow of the college in 1901 , and professor of chemistry from 1935 to 1945 .
sidgwick became absorbed by the study of atomic structure and its importance in chemical bonding .
he explained the bonding in coordination compounds -lrb- complexes -rrb- , with a convincing account of the significance of the dative bond .
together with his students he demonstrated the existence and wide-ranging importance of the hydrogen bond .
in 1927 , he proposed the inert pair effect which describes the stability of heavier p-block atoms in an oxidation state two less than the maximum .
in 1940 his bakerian lecture with herbert marcus powell correlated molecular geometry with the number of valence electrons on a central atom .
these ideas were later developed into the vsepr theory by gillespie and nyholm .
his works include `` the organic chemistry of nitrogen '' -lrb- 1910 -rrb- , `` the electronic theory of valency '' -lrb- 1927 -rrb- , `` some physical properties of the covalent link in chemistry '' -lrb- 1933 -rrb- , and the definitive `` the chemical elements and their compounds '' -lrb- 1950 -rrb- .
he was made a fellow of the royal society in 1922 and died in oxford on 15 march 1952 .
the sidgwick laboratory in the dyson perrins laboratory for organic chemistry and sidgwick close in front of the inorganic chemistry laboratory at the university of oxford were named after him .
