Donald J. Cram
The information listed below is current as of the date the transcript was finalized.
Interview Details
Interview Sessions
Abstract of Interview
In this interview Donald Cram talks briefly about his family and growing up in Vermont, Florida and New York, and this is followed by a description of his experiences at Rollins College and his start in the world of chemistry. Next he talks about his graduate work at the University of Nebraska with Norman Cromwell, the circumstances which led him to work at Merck during World War II, and his work at Merck and the chemists with whom he collaborated. He then talks at length about his doctoral work at Harvard, his research, his coursework, cumulative and foreign language exams, and his interaction with various members of the faculty. In 1947 he took a position at UCLA, and he describes much of his research through the early 1960s, Saul Winstein and his interactions with Winstein, and the changes that took place over thirty years in the UCLA chemistry department. The last part of the interview includes comments on the changes that have taken place in organic chemistry as a result of various factors, the advantages to the academic community of interactions with industry, the state and future of organic chemistry, and a description of his major research effort in the late 1970s, guest-host chemistry. It was this research that led to his sharing the Nobel Prize in 1987. In the final pages of the interview he talks about the influence of theory and theoretical papers on the development of chemistry.
Education
| Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Rollins College | BS | Chemistry |
| 1942 | University of Nebraska | MS | Chemistry |
| 1947 | Harvard University | PhD | Chemistry |
Professional Experience
Merck & Company Inc.
University of California, Los Angeles
Self-employed
Honors
| Year(s) | Award |
|---|---|
| 1953 | Western Sectional Award, American Chemical Society |
| 1954 to 1955 | Guggenheim Fellow |
| 1961 | Member, National Academy of Sciences |
| 1965 | Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Contributions to Chemistry |
| 1965 | Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, American Chemical Society |
| 1965 | Award for Creative Work in Organic Chemistry, Society of Chemical Manufacturers Association |
| 1967 | Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| 1974 | Arthur C. Cope Award for Distinguished Achievement in Organic Chemistry, American Chemical Society |
| 1974 | California Scientist of the Year, Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry |
| 1975 | Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Contributions to Chemistry |
| 1975 | Rollins College Distinguished Alumni Award |
| 1977 | Honorary doctorate, Uppsala University, Sweden |
| 1983 | Honorary doctorate, University of Southern California |
| 1985 | Roger Adams Award, American Chemical Society |
| 1985 | Richard Tolman Medal, Southern California Section, American Chemical Society |
| 1985 | Willard Gibbs Award, Chicago Section, American Chemical Society |
| 1987 | Nobel Prize in Chemistry |
| 1988 | Honorary doctorate, Rollins College |
| 1989 | Honorary doctorate, University of Nebraska |
| 1989 | Honorary doctorate, University of Western Ontario |
| 1989 | Glenn Seaborg Award |
| 1991 | Honorary doctorate, University of Sheffield |
| 1992 | National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences |
Table of Contents
Parents. Family values. Attending high school in Florida and New York. Extra-curricular interests.
Scholarship. Chemistry department. Faculty. Deciding to be a college professor. Deciding to be a chemist. Laboratory at Rollins. Introduction to self-learning. Extra-curricular activities. Summer job in New York City.
Applying to graduate schools. Work at Nebraska. Norman Cromwell. Research. Courses. Marriage. Chemical literature. Pilot training. Getting job at Merck. Other chemists at Merck. Projects.
National Research Council Fellowship. Influence of Max Tishler. Louis Fieser as mentor. R. B. Woodward and Paul Bartlett. Cumulative exams. Thermodynamics. Work, skiing and courses with R. B. Woodward. Language exams. Research. Deciding when to finish Ph.D. ACS Fellowship. Post-doc with Jack Roberts. Recommendations.
Reading the chemical literature. Mold metabolites. Paracyclophanes. Phenonium ion rearrangements. Securing UCLA position. Rule of steric control of asymmetric induction (Cram's Rule). Concepts vs. empirical leads. Carbanion work. Saul Winstein. The chemistry department.
Instrumentation. Physical organic chemistry. Effect of World War II. Effect of industrial development in the U. S.
Synthesis. Bioorganic chemistry. Guest-Host chemistry. The integration of physical organic chemistry into mainstream organic chemistry. Stereospecificity. Compounds with holes.
Changes in approach: Publication of theoretical and speculative papers. Stimulation for new experimental work. Transition state theory. Woodward-Hoffmann rules.
About the Interviewer
Leon Gortler is a professor of chemistry at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He holds AB and MS degrees from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Harvard University where he worked with Paul Bartlett. He has long been interested in the history of chemistry, in particular the development of physical organic chemistry, and has conducted over fifty oral and videotaped interviews with major American chemists.