Harden M. McConnell

Born July 18, 1927 in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.

Email:harden@stanford.edu
WWW: external link

California Section Award of the ACS (1961); National ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1962); Election to the National Academy of Sciences (1965); Harrison Howe Award, ACS (1968); Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics (1971); Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1982); Dickson Prize for Science, Carnegie-Mellon University (1982); ISCO Award (1984); Wolf Prize (shared with Herbert Gutowsky and John Waugh) (1984); Pauling Medal, Puget Sound and Oregon ACS Sections (1987); Wheland Medal, University of Chicago (1988); U.S. National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences (1988); National Medal of Science (1989); Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, ACS (1990); Doctor of Science, University of Chicago (Honorary) (1991); Bruker Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry (1995); ACS Award in Surface Chemistry (1997). Biophysical Society Fellow (1999); Zavoisky Award (2000).

Important Contributions:

Harden McConnell is a physical chemist who has made significant contributions to the understanding of the relation between molecular electronic structure and electron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra during the period of 1955 through 1965. He then developed the technique of spin-labels, whereby electron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra can be used to study the structure and kinetics of proteins and membranes. Most recently McConnell has been involved in physical chemical / biophysical studies of molecules involved in immune recognition, that is, antibodies and molecules of the major histocompatibility complex. He has also carried out extensive theoretical and experimental studies of two-dimensional molecular films at the air-water interface that are related to the biophysical properties of membranes.