Dear Friends and Colleagues,

In memory of Professor Herbert C. Brown, Nobel Laureate, who died Sunday, December 19, 2004, the Department of Chemistry will hold a campus-wide memorial service at 2 p.m. on February 5, 2005 in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall.  We would be pleased if you could attend.  For those unable to attend, you may send condolences to his wife, Mrs. Sarah B. Brown, directly to the Department of Chemistry, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.

Dr. Herbert C. Brown

1912-2004

Born May 22, 1912, in London, England, He received his bachelor's degree in 1936 and his doctorate in 1938, both from University of Chicago. He taught there and at Wayne State University before joining the Purdue faculty in 1947.

Dr. Brown was best known for his pioneering work with boron compounds, which revolutionized synthetic organic chemistry. While working for the Department of Defense during World War II, he found a way to make sodium borohydride.

This compound opened a new path for making hydrogen gas, used in weather balloons during the war and in fuel cells today. This was the first of many reactions made possible by boranes, which are compounds of boron and hydrogen.

In 1979, Dr. Brown shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with German chemist Georg Wittig of the University of Heidelberg. He has received many other medals, honorary doct