Obituaries

Patrick G. Grimes, 77, an energy research chemist, died on May 27 in Summit, N.J.

Grimes earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1952 from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and completed a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1958 at Iowa State University.

He started his career at the Atomic Energy Commission laboratory in Ames, Iowa, later moving to the research laboratories of Allis-Chalmers and McGraw Edison in Milwaukee.

In 1972, Grimes joined Exxon Research & Engineering, supporting a joint venture with Alsthom in Massey, France. He later transferred to Exxon's corporate research laboratories, working in both Linden and Annandale, N.J., as a senior research chemist, research associate, and staff analyst. Grimes was a member of the team that designed the first fuel-cell-powered tractor.

In 1994, he founded Grimes Associates, a consulting firm serving government and private energy companies. He was also the chief scientist at Gibbs Energy.

He held more than 25 patents in battery technology, fuel cells, electrochemical processes, and chemical systems.

Grimes is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Maureen; six children; and 10 grandchildren. An emeritus member, he joined ACS in 1955.

Charles (Miko) Mioskowski, 61, head of the Laboratory of Bioorganic Synthesis at Louis Pasteur University, died of melanoma on June 2 at his home in Strasbourg, France.

Born in Falck, France, to a German mother and a Polish father who worked as a coal miner, Mioskowski studied at the European Chemical School of Engineers in Strasbourg. He went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry from Louis Pasteur University in 1978.

Mioskowski did postdoctoral work at Harvard University, synthesizing leukotriene C₄ under the guidance of E. J. Corey, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1990.

He then began his scientific career at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). In 1985, he returned to Pasteur University to start the Laboratory of Bioorganic Synthesis within the pharmacy department. In 1991, he took on the additional role of director of the Radiolabeled Molecules & Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay.

Mioskowski is credited with more than 350 publications and 25 patents relating to natural product total synthesis, synthetic methodology, organometallic reagents, carbon nanotube functionalization, applications of catalytic antibodies, and bioorganic chemistry.

He received many awards, including the Bronze Medal of CNRS, the Jungfleich Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, the Grignard-Wittig Award of the German Chemical Society, the Le Bel Prize of the French Chemical Society, and the Charles Mentzer Prize of the Society of Therapeutic Chemistry.

Mioskowski's wife, Eliane; two children; and one grandson survive him. He had been an ACS member for 19 years.

Howard Rosman, 77, emeritus professor of chemistry at Hofstra University, died on June 23.

After earning both a B.A. in chemistry in 1951 and a master's degree in chemistry in 1952 from the State University of New York, Albany, Rosman attended Columbia University as an Atomic Energy Commission graduate student, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1958.

In 1957, he joined the faculty at Hofstra, conducting research on the chemical kinetics of fast reactions and teaching physical chemistry full-time until 1992. During his tenure, he served as department chair for nine years.

After retirement, Rosman developed a freshman chemistry course and opted to teach it until 2004.

Rosman is survived by two daughters and three grandchildren. An emeritus member, Rosman joined ACS in 1956.

Sister Marie Augustine Smalt, 98, a retired chemistry professor, died on June 6 at the Sisters of Saint Joseph Infirmary in Rochester, N.Y., of natural causes.

Smalt became a Sister of Saint Joseph in 1926, serving as a high school science teacher from 1932 until 1939. She went on to earn a master's degree in chemistry in 1941 from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a doctorate in chemistry from the Institutum Divi Thomae, in Cincinnati, in 1953.

From 1941 until 1977, Smalt was professor and chair of the chemistry department at Nazareth College in Rochester. She then took on the roles of assistant to the academic dean and the provost until 1988.

Smalt served as an alternate councilor and treasurer for the ACS Rochester Section. An emeritus member, she joined ACS in 1942.

Smalt is survived by her sister, Lucille, and several nieces and nephews.

Samuel I. Weissman, 94, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Washington University, St. Louis, died on June 12.

Weissman earned a bachelor's degree in 1933 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1938 from the University of Chicago.

He then went on to the University of California, Berkeley, to work as a National Research Council fellow under the direction of physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis. During this time, he studied optical properties of rare earths, laying the foundation for the development of certain lasers and some resonant energy-transfer methods. However, Weissman's work was cut short by the war. He was one of the first to arrive at Los Alamos, N.M., to work on the Manhattan Project.

In 1946, he joined the department of chemistry at Washington University, where he pioneered the use of electron spin resonance in chemistry in collaboration with other scientists. Weissman received emeritus status in 1980, but he remained active in discussing research and planning experiments with colleagues and students until recently.

In 1966, Weissman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

He is survived by his wife, Jane; a son, Michael, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and two grandsons. Weissman joined ACS in 1934 and was an emeritus member.