Donald James Cram | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 22, 1919 |
| Died | June 17, 2001 (aged 82) |
| Education | Rollins College (BS) University of Nebraska (MS) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Known for | Cram's rule Host–guest chemistry phenonium ions paracyclophanes |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1987) Glenn T. Seaborg Medal (1989) National Medal of Science (1993) Guggenheim fellowship (1955) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | UCLA,Merck & Co,MIT |
| Theses | |
| Doctoral advisor | Louis Fieser |
| Doctoral students | M. Frederick Hawthorne Norman L. Allinger |
Donald James Cram (April 22, 1919 – June 17, 2001) was an Americanchemist who shared the 1987Nobel Prize in Chemistry withJean-Marie Lehn andCharles J. Pedersen "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity." They were the founders of the field ofhost–guest chemistry.
Cram was born[2] and raised inChester, Vermont, to aScottish immigrant father, and aGerman immigrant mother. His father died before Cram turned four, leaving him the only male in a family of five. He grew up onAid to Dependent Children, and learned to work at an early age, doing jobs such as picking fruit, tossing newspapers, and painting houses, while bartering for piano lessons. By the time he turned eighteen, he had worked at least eighteen different jobs.[3]
Cram attended the Winwood High School in Long Island, N.Y.[4]From 1938 to 1941, he attendedRollins College inWinter Park, Florida on a national honorary scholarship, where he worked as an assistant in the chemistry department, and was active in theater, chapel choir,Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Society, and Zeta Alpha Epsilon. It was at Rollins that he became known for building his own chemistry equipment. In 1941, he graduated fromRollins College with aBS in chemistry.[3]
In 1942, he graduated from theUniversity of Nebraska with aMS in organic chemistry,[2] with Norman O. Cromwell serving as his thesis adviser. His subject was "Amino ketones, mechanism studies of the reactions of heterocyclic secondary amines with -bromo-, -unsaturated ketones."[5]
In 1947, Cram graduated fromHarvard University with aPhD inorganic chemistry,[2] withLouis Fieser serving as the adviser on his dissertation on "Syntheses and reactions of 2-(ketoalkyl)-3-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinones"[6]
From 1942 to 1945, Cram worked in chemical research atMerck & Co laboratories, doing penicillin research with mentorMax Tishler.[3] Postdoctoral work was as anAmerican Chemical Society postdoctoral fellow at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, withJohn D. Roberts. Cram was the originator ofCram's rule, which provides a model for predicting the outcome ofnucleophilic attack of carbonyl compounds.[7] He published over 350 research papers and eight books on organic chemistry, and taught graduate and post-doctoral students from 21 different countries.[3]
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Cram expanded uponCharles Pedersen's ground-breaking synthesis ofcrown ethers, two-dimensionalorganic compounds that are able to recognize and selectively combine with the ions of certain metal elements. He synthesized molecules that took thischemistry into three dimensions, creating an array of differently shaped molecules that could interact selectively with other chemicals because of their complementary three-dimensional structures. Cram's work represented a large step toward the synthesis of functional laboratory-made mimics ofenzymes and other natural molecules whose special chemical behavior is due to their characteristic structure. He also did work instereochemistry andCram's rule of asymmetric induction is named after him.
In 1973, Cram collaborated on research with Irish chemistFrancis Leslie Scott.
Cram was named anassistant professor at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles in 1947, and a professor in 1955. He served there until his retirement in 1987. He was a popular teacher, having instructed some 8,000 undergraduates in his career and guided the academic output of 200graduate students. He entertained his classes by strumming his guitar and singingfolk songs.[2] He showed a self-deprecating style, saying at one time:
An investigator starts research in a new field with faith, a foggy idea, and a few wild experiments. Eventually the interplay of negative and positive results guides the work. By the time the research is completed, he or she knows how it should have been started and conducted.[9]
Technical Reports:
Books:
Cram once admitted that his career wasn't without sacrifice. His first wife was Rollins classmate, Jean Turner, who also graduated in 1941, and went on to receive a master's degree in social work fromColumbia University. His second wife, Jane, is a former chemistry professor atMount Holyoke College. Cram chose not to have any children, "because I would either be a bad father or a bad scientist."[3]
Cram died of cancer in 2001, at the age of 82.[2]
