Five Receive $40,000 PRF Grants University professors get unrestricted Petroleum Research Fund grants for research in pure science that could form basis for future petroleum studies

Research grants of $40,000 each have been awarded to five outstanding sci­entists by The Petroleum Research Fund, which is administered by the American Chemical Society (see page 56) . The recipients are Dr. Joseph F. Bunnett of Brown University, Dr. Ernest L. Eliel of the University of Notre Dame, Dr. R. Martin Stiles of the University of Michigan, Dr. D. S. Tarbell of the University of Rochester, and Dr. Howard E. Zimmerman of the University of Wisconsin.

The unrestricted awards permit each of these scientists, selected on the basis of outstanding basic research ac­complishments, to investigate any areas of pure science of interest to him which may afford a basis for sub­sequent research connected with the petroleum field. Although each grant is for a four-year period, the funds may be used at whatever rate provides the greatest support to the scientist's research program.

Dr. Bunnett is professor of chem­istry at Brown University. He re­ceived a B.A. in 1942 from Reed Col­lege and a Ph.D. in 1945 from the University of Rochester. After teach­ing chemistry at Reed and at the Uni­versity of North Carolina, he joined the Brown faculty in 1958. From 1961 to 1964 he was chairman of the chemistry department there. Dr. Bunnett has done advanced research at University College, London, and the University of Munich.

International Recognition. A lead­ing authority on aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions and olefin-form-ing elimination reactions, Dr. Bunnett has won international recognition for his research.

Dr. Eliel is professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame and at present is serving as chairman of the chemistry department. A native of Cologne, Germany, he attended the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the University of Havana, Cuba, and received a Ph.D. in 1948 from the University of Illinois. He joined the Notre Dame faculty that year and be­came professor of chemistry in 1960.

Bunnett Eliel

Stiles

Tarbell Zimmerman

Dr. Eliel was chairman of the ACS St. Joseph Valley Section in 1960 and is currently a member of the editorial advisory board of The Journal of Or­ganic Chemistry.

Dr. Eliel's principal research re­lated to the petroleum field has been in stereochemistry, including confor­mational analysis, and in the chem­istry of heterocyclic compounds and complex metal hydrides.

Professor of chemistry at the Uni­versity of Michigan, Dr. Stiles re­ceived a B.S. degree at Ohio State University in 1950, and an M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D. in 1954 from Harvard University. He joined the University of Michigan staff in 1953 as a research associate and became professor last year. Dr. Stiles was a member of the

editorial advisory board of The Jour­nal of Organic Chemistry from 1960 to 1964.

His research interests are in ben-zyne chemistry, chelation in organic reactions, and carbonium-ion type mo­lecular rearrangements.

Houghton Professor. Dr. Tarbell is Houghton Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rochester. He at­tended Harvard University, where he received an A.B. in 1934, an A.M. in 1935, and a Ph.D. in 1937. Dr. Tarbell has taught chemistry at Roch­ester since 1938 and became Houghton Professor in 1960. Last year he was named chairman of the chemistry department. He is a mem­ber of the National Academy of Sci­ences and chairman of a medicinal chemistry study section of the Na­tional Institutes of Health.

Author of about 150 scientific arti­cles dealing with reaction mechanisms, the synthesis and structure of natural products, and other problems in struc­tural and theoretical organic chem­istry, Dr. Tarbell has directed the re­search of more than 100 doctoral can­didates and postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Zimmerman, professor of chem­istry at the University of Wisconsin, was educated at Yale University, where he received a B.S. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1953. From 1954 to 1960 he taught chemistry at Northwestern University. He became associate pro­fessor of chemistry at Wisconsin in 1960 and was named professor the following year.

Dr. Zimmerman's outstanding re­search accomplishments have been in the stereochemistry of ketonization, carbanion rearrangements, and mech­anisms in organic photochemistry.

Previous winners of ACS-PRF grants of $40,000 (C&EN, Jan. 25, page 76) for established scientists conducting fundamental research in the petroleum field are Dr. Norman C. Deno, Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Irving Fatt, University of Califor­nia, Berkeley; Dr. Ernest M. Grun-wald, Brandeis University; and Dr. Herbert S. Gutowsky, University of Illinois.

New Local Section Pubs Editor —Correction Dr. Edwin Harper is the new editor of the Northern New York Section's The Test Tube. He succeeds Dr. Guy Donaruma (C&EN, March 15, page 94) .

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