Paul von Ragué Schleyer

Born February 27, 1930 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director, Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Graham Perdue Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.

Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1962–66; Fulbright Research Fellow, University of Munich, 1964–65; J. S. Guggenheim Fellow, University of Munich, 1964–65; Dr. Honoris Causa, Université de Lyon, 1971; Senior US Scientist Award, Alexander v. Humboldt Foundation, 1974–75; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1981; Member, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1984–; Adolf-von-Baeyer Prize, German Chemical Society, 1986; James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 1987; Heisenberg Medal, Hungarian Chemical Society and World Association of Theoretical Organic Chemists, (WATOC) 1987, President, WATOC, 1990; Christopher K. Ingold Medal and Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 1988; Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society, 1991; Merck-Schuchardt Chair, Belgian Chemical Society, 1991.

Author of:

Important Contributions:

• Physical organic chemistry and the mechanisms of organic reactions.
• Conformational analysis.
• Spectroscopic studies of hydrogen bonding.
• Carbonium ion rearrangements, reactivities and stabilities; solvolysis mechanisms.
• Adamantane, diamondoid molecules, norbornane and other bridged ring systems.
• Theoretical calculations applied inter alia to carbonium ions, carbanions, reactive intermediates, organolithium, and boron compounds.
• The discovery of new molecular structures and new bonding principles.