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Education

George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education

January 30, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 5

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Credit: Courtesy of F. Albert Cotton
Cotton
Credit: Courtesy of F. Albert Cotton
Cotton

Sponsored by Dow Chemical

"Seeing how much impact I have had indirectly through the students I have mentored and several more generations down the line" is, F. Albert Cotton says, his reward for teaching and mentoring. Cotton is the W. T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University.

The reward is not all Cotton's; students are also rewarded. Tobin J. Marks, professor of chemistry and of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University, says, "As a one-on-one mentor, Cotton has the rare ability to instill in students scientific excitement as well as respect for the rigorous scientific methodology; the necessity of hard, careful work; and the lifelong belief that discovery-oriented research is in every way fun." Continuing Cotton's generational metaphor, Marks says, "It is no surprise that he has produced an outstanding progeny of scientific children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, a great many of whom hold positions in universities, colleges, companies, and government laboratories around the world."

Marks, one of these progeny, says, "For me, my four years with Al Cotton were one of the richest educational experiences in my life, after which I knew exactly what I wanted to become: a university faculty member dedicated to education and research."

Marks adds, "It is characteristic of the finest teachers that their teaching takes the lead as opposed to following the progress in the subject they teach. No more outstanding example could be cited than that of Al Cotton's initiative in making the entire academic community conscious of the need to teach molecular orbital theory and to encourage the use of group theory."

Cotton's contributions to chemistry include much more than teaching. During the past five decades, he has authored or coauthored a number of books and more than 1,550 research publications. Explaining how he finds time to teach, Cotton says, "I never had a problem finding time to teach. I have always been a teacher who found time to write and do research."

Foremost among his books, according to colleagues, is "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry," written with the late Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson and published in 1962. Cotton says it was, compared with previous texts, much more comprehensive, especially regarding theory and transition metals.

Malcolm H. Chisholm, professor of mathematics and physical sciences at Ohio State University, says this book, now in its sixth edition, "has been the bible in its field for over four decades. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages and published legally and illegally the world over."

George B. Kauffman, professor of chemistry at California State University, Fresno, says, "This was the first inorganic text, at any level, to present an introduction to ligand field theory [LFT], which by the time of the first edition in 1962 had become very prominent in the research literature and hence should have been discussed in inorganic chemistry courses." In the book, LFT concepts "were not only expounded but brought to bear on the magnetic and spectroscopic properties of each of the transition elements as its chemistry was discussed," Kauffmann says.

In 1976, Cotton followed up "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry" with "Basic Inorganic Chemistry," again coauthored with Wilkinson.

Cotton did not limit himself to college texts; he also is the author of a high school text, "Chemistry: An Investigative Approach." In explaining how this book came about, Cotton says, "The National Science Foundation had originally sponsored a high school text written by George Pimentel. Then, after a few years, NSF encouraged several publishers to find authors who would modify it. That is what I did for Houghton-Mifflin. The book focused on an inductive approach, whereby students would let their own experimental observations drive their thinking toward principles and generalizations."

Chisholm perhaps best sums up Cotton's career: "His research, spanning now five decades, has transformed many of the ways we think about and do chemistry. His research has been both prolific and profound. In many ways, his influence on chemistry is comparable with that of Linus Pauling in leading us in new directions. And his former students are to be found the world over, and many now hold the highest offices in academe and industry."

Cotton, born in Philadelphia in 1930, received his A.B. degree from Temple University in 1951 and his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1955. He held teaching positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1955 and 1971. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 1972 as Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor. Cotton has been director of the university's Laboratory for Molecular Structure & Bonding since 1982 and W. T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Distinguished Professor since 1984.

During his career, Cotton has received honorary degrees from 28 universities in the U.S. and overseas and has received some 37 major awards in chemistry.

The award address will be presented before the Division of Chemical Education and the Division of Inorganic Chemistry.-William Storck

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