Sheldon G. Shore

Sheldon G. Shore, 83, Distinguished Professor of Mathematical & Physical Sciences and Charles H. Kimberly Chair of Chemistry at Ohio State University, died in Columbus, Ohio, on April 4.

Born in Chicago, Shore was awarded a B.S. in chemistry in 1951 by the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He earned an M.S. in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1957, both in chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He then joined the Ohio State faculty as an assistant professor and was promoted to professor in 1966.

Shore is best known for his pioneering work with boron hydrides, metal-cluster carbonyls, and lanthanide transition-metal systems. He and his coworkers completed the first rational synthesis of B₄–B₁₀ boron hydrides. He produced the first well-defined examples of boron nitride nanotubes and conducted important mechanistic studies of the synthesis of metal-cluster carbonylates. Shore’s work on mixed-metal clusters of lanthanide transition-metal elements and their conversion to nanoparticles has led to the development of new heterogeneous catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone, hydrodechlorination of chlorobenzenes, and reforming of propane.

Shore is credited with many scientific publications and 14 patents.

He received the ACS Cleveland Section’s Morley Medal in 1989, the ACS Columbus Section Award in 1990, and the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry in 2007. He was elected to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences & Humanities and was an ACS member from 1952 until 2012.

He is survived by his brother Melvin, three nephews, and two nieces. Shore’s brother Sam predeceased him.