2006-04-18
Tolman Award Dinner

Tolman Award Dinner

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

At
UCLA Faculty Club
480 Charles Young Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90095

“Adventures in Physical Organic Chemistry: We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!”
by
Professor Fred Wudl
2005 Tolman Award Recipient

6:00 p.m. Hosted Bar and Social Hour
7:00 p.m. Dinner
8:00 p.m. Presentation

The Award: The Richard C. Tolman Medal is awarded each year by the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society in recognition of outstanding contributions to chemistry in Southern California. The Tolman Medal recognizes broad accomplishments in chemistry rather than a single fundamental discovery. These contributions may be of several kinds, including fundamental research of widely regarded influence, achievements of broad impact in chemical technology, significant contributions to chemical education, and outstanding leadership in science on a national level. To be eligible for the Medal, the recipient must have accomplished a major portion of his or her work while a resident of Southern California.

Abstract: It is possible that most of the current practitioners careers in physical organic chemistry have tracked the evolution of the field itself. The discipline had its origins with the Ingold school in England and the Hammett, Winstein, Cram, Olah, etc contributions in the USA. The elucidation of reaction mechanisms was the principal preoccupation from the 1940’s to the early 1970’s. Later the field evolved into theoretical aspects as well as directed molecular organization (self assembly) and solid state properties, ultimately leading to organic electronics.

In this lecture I will illustrate this “evolution” with examples of contributions from our group from 1970 – 2006 in the area of synthesis, asymmetric synthesis, alkali metal complexation, organic electronics and fullerene chemistry. The molecules and processes shown here and below are a few illustrative examples that will be covered.

Dinner: There is an entree choice of Sauteed Alaskan Halibut Fillet or Sliced Stuffed Medallions of Chicken Bressane. The dinner will come with Fanned Belgian Endive and Mesclun Salad and Rum Chocolate Mousse Cake for dessert. Vegetarian entree available upon request.

Cost: $31 per person including dinner, wine with dinner, tax and gratuity. Please note that there is an $8 charge for parking in addition.

Reservations: Call the Section Office at (310) 327-1216 or email office-at-scalacs-dot-org by Monday, April 12, 2006 and indicate your entree choice. Note: Please honor your reservation. If you make a reservation and do not attend, you will be liable for the cost of the dinner.

Directions: From the I-405 (San Diego Freeway): From the 405 freeway take the Sunset Blvd. exit and go east. Turn right on Hilgard Avenue then turn right on Westholme (the second traffic light) and enter the UCLA campus. Go to the parking and information kiosk to your right and request parking in Lot 2 which is across the street from the Faculty Center. Directions are also available on the web at: http://facultycenter.ucla.edu/access.htm. There is an $8 parking fee.


Professor Fred Wudl
2005 Tolman Award Recipient

Professor Wudl received a B.S. (1964) and a Ph.D. (1967) degree from UCLA where his dissertation work was done with Professor Donald J. Cram. After postdoctoral research with R.B. Woodward at Harvard, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1972 he moved to AT&T Bell Laboratories and ten years later he moved to UCSB, where he served as Professor of Chemistry and Materials and Associate Director of the Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids. In 1997 he moved to UCLA to occupy the Dean M. Willard Chair of Chemistry and Materials (formerly Courtaulds Professor of Chemistry) and to become director of the Exotic Materials Institute.

He is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as well as the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCLA and is the director of the Materials Creation Training Program, an NSF sponsored training grant. He is an associate editor of Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, a Regional Editor (USA) of the Journal of Materials Chemistry, an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Materials Science and an Advisory Board member of Synlett. He has co-authored over 400 scientific papers and holds 13 U.S. patents.

Professor Wudl has received numerous awards including the ACS Award for Chemistry of Materials, The Giulio Natta Medal of the Italian Chemical Society, ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, The Wheland Medal of University of Chicago, Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, William Rauscher Lecturer in Chemistry Award (Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute), Karcher Lecturer (University of Oklahoma), Peter A. Leermakers Lecturer (twice), 3M Lecturer (University of British Columbia), Stouffer Award (USC), Arthur D. Little Award, Clapp Lecturer (Brown University), Bayer Lecturer (Cornell University), Alumnus of the Year Award from Los Angeles City College, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Herbert Newby McCoy Award, Honorary Doctors degree, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain, Professor C.N.R. Rao Lecture Award of CRSI, Honorary Fellow, Council of the Chemical Research Society of India Merck, and Merck-Karl Pfister Visiting Professor in Organic Chemistry.

He is most widely known for his work on organic conductors and superconductors. He discovered the electronic conductivity of the precursor to the first organic metal and superconductor. In the recent past he has been interested in electronically conducting polymers, where he discovered the first transparent organic conductor and the first self-doped polymers. Currently he is interested in self-mending engineering plastics, where he published the first pioneering work. He is also researching the optical and electrooptical properties of processable conjugated polymers as well as in the organic chemistry of fullerenes and the design and preparation of organic ferromagnets, particularly ferromagnetic organic metals.