Corwin Hansch | |
---|---|
Born | Corwin Herman Hansch October 6, 1918 |
Died | May 8, 2011 | (aged 92)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Illinois New York University |
Known for | Hansch equation QSAR |
Spouse | Gloria J. Hansch (nee Tomasulo) (m.1945?–2011) (his death) (1 child) |
Awards | Tolman Award (1975) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Organic Chemistry |
Institutions | Pomona College Manhattan Project |
Thesis | Syntheses of 3-substituted thianaphthenes (1944) |
Doctoral advisor | Harry Gustave Lindwall[1] |
Corwin Herman Hansch (October 6, 1918 – May 8, 2011)[2] was a professor of chemistry at Pomona College in California. He became known as the 'father of computer-assisted molecule design.'[3]
Hansch was born on October 6, 1918, in Kenmare, North Dakota. He earned a BS from the University of Illinois in 1940 and a PhD from New York University in 1944. He briefly worked as a postdoc at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Hansch worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago and as a group leader at DuPont Nemours in Richland, Washington. In February 1946 he received an academic position at Pomona College, where he taught until 1988.[4][5] Hansch completed sabbaticals at ETH Zurich with Vladimir Prelog and at University of Munich with Rolf Huisgen.[6]
Hansch taught Organic Chemistry for many years at Pomona College, and was known for giving complex lectures without using notes. His course in Physical Bio-Organic Medicinal Chemistry was ground-breaking at an undergraduate level.
Hansch may be best known as the father of the concept of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), the quantitative correlation of the physicochemical properties of molecules with their biological activities.[7]
He is also noted for the Hansch equation, which is used in
Research Interests: Organic Chemistry; Interaction of organic chemicals with living organisms, Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR).
He died of pneumonia on May 8, 2011, in Claremont, California, at 92.[2]