Richard A. Andersen (chemist)

Richard "Dick" A. Andersen (November 16, 1942 – June 16, 2019)[4] was a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and faculty senior scientist at the chemical sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[5]

This article is about the inorganic chemist. For the neuroscientist, see Richard A. Andersen (neuroscientist).
Richard Allan Andersen
Born(1942-11-16)November 16, 1942
Oklahoma
DiedJune 16, 2019(2019-06-16) (aged 76)
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsInorganic Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley
ThesisSterically Hindered Beryllium Alkoxides and Some of their Derivatives (1973)
Doctoral advisorGeoffrey Coates
Other academic advisorsGeoffrey Wilkinson
Doctoral studentsJohn Hartwig,[1] Don Tilley,[2] Gregory Girolami[3]

Early life and career

Born in Oklahoma in 1942, Richard Allan Andersen was raised and educated in the small town of Yankton, South Dakota.[6] He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1965 from the University of South Dakota.[5] Andersen pursued graduate studies at the University of Wyoming, working under the supervision of Professor Geoffrey Coates.[4][6] Andersen was Coates' last student.[6] In 1973, Andersen earned his Ph.D. with several fundamental organometallic and alkoxide compounds of beryllium.[7][8][9][10][11][12]

Andersen then spent a year as postdoctoral researcher at the Oslo Centre for Industrial Research.[13] On the day it was announced that Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst O. Fisher would share the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Andersen received an offer to conduct his postdoctoral research in Wilkinson's laboratory at Imperial College London.[5][6] Andersen took up this post a few months later, in 1974.[13] In June 1976 he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley's department of chemistry.[4] He remained a professor in the department until his death in 2019.[4]

Andersen was also active in teaching throughout his career, and was well-known for teaching from the primary inorganic chemistry literature,[14] as well as his hands-on approach to teaching undergraduate laboratory courses.[4][5]

Research

Andersen began his independent research career at UC Berkeley in 1976. Initially his research focused on ligand substitution patterns in quadruply-bonded Mo2 complexes.[6] He also studied actinide coordination complexes bearing the sterically bulky amido ligand –N(SiMe3)2, including the uranium(III) compound U[N(SiMe3)2]3,[6][15] which was later found to have pyramidal geometry.[16]

Awards and honors

Andersen was awarded many Visiting Professorships around the world, including appointments in Sevilla, Lyon, Montpellier, New South Wales, and Zurich.[6] He was also an Alexander von Humboldt Professor in various locations in Germany (1994).[6][17] Andersen was also a member of the Royal Chemical Society, American Chemical Society, and Sigma Xi.[17]

References
  1. Group, Hartwig. "John F. Hartwig". The Hartwig Group. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  2. "T. Don Tilley". www.cchem.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  3. "Girolami Group Website". faculty.scs.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  4. "Richard A. Andersen". senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  5. "In Memoriam: Richard Andersen | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  6. Arnold, John; Tilley, T. Don (2018-10-26). "An enigmatic trailblazer on the frontier of discovery: Richard A. Andersen". Chemical Communications. 54 (86): 12131–12132. doi:10.1039/C8CC90464B. ISSN 1364-548X. PMID 30324202.
  7. Andersen, R. A.; Bell, N. A.; Coates, G. E. (1972). "t-Butoxyberyllium halides and related compounds: the series X2Be3(OBut)4". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (4): 577–582. doi:10.1039/dt9720000577. ISSN 0300-9246.
  8. Andersen, R. A.; Coates, G. E. (1972-01-01). "Some sterically hindered beryllium alkoxides and their derivatives; monomeric beryllium 2,6-di-t-butylphenoxide". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (19): 2153–2155. doi:10.1039/DT9720002153. ISSN 1364-5447.
  9. Andersen, Richard A.; Coates, Geoffrey E. (1974-01-01). "Reactions of beryllium alkyls with carbonyl and azomethine groups: addition, reduction, complex formation, and ortho-metallation". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (11): 1171–1180. doi:10.1039/DT9740001171. ISSN 1364-5447.
  10. Andersen, Richard A.; Coates, Geoffrey E. (1974). "Alkoxyberyllium tetrahydroborates: t-butoxyberyllium pentane-2,4-dionate and complexes of t-butoxyberyllium oxide". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (13): 1440. doi:10.1039/dt9740001440. ISSN 0300-9246.
  11. Andersen, Richard A.; Coates, Geoffrey E. (1974-01-01). "Alkali-metal alkylberyllium alkoxides". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (16): 1729–1736. doi:10.1039/DT9740001729. ISSN 1364-5447.
  12. Andersen, Richard A.; Coates, Geoffrey E. (1975-01-01). "Dimeric bis(nonafluoro-t-butoxy)beryllium and some of its co-ordinatio complexes". Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions (12): 1244–1245. doi:10.1039/DT9750001244. ISSN 1364-5447.
  13. Carmona, Ernesto (2019-12-09). "Richard Allan Andersen (November 16, 1942–June 16, 2019): A Tribute". Organometallics. 38 (23): 4523–4532. doi:10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00756. ISSN 0276-7333.
  14. Stewart, Joanne L.; Bentley, Anne K.; Johnson, Adam R.; Nataro, Chip; Reisner, Barbara A.; Watson, Lori A. (2018-10-09). "Teaching from the primary inorganic literature: lessons from Richard Andersen". Dalton Transactions. 47 (39): 13755–13760. doi:10.1039/C8DT02669F. ISSN 1477-9234. PMID 30234873.
  15. Andersen, Richard A. (1979-06-01). "Tris((hexamethyldisilyl)amido)uranium(III): preparation and coordination chemistry". Inorganic Chemistry. 18 (6): 1507–1509. doi:10.1021/ic50196a021. ISSN 0020-1669.
  16. Stewart, Joanne L.; Andersen, Richard A. (1998-03-30). "Trivalent uranium chemistry: molecular structure of [(Me3Si)2N]3U". Polyhedron. 17 (5–6): 953–958. doi:10.1016/S0277-5387(97)00244-1. ISSN 0277-5387.
  17. "Richard A. Andersen | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
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