Donald J. Cram

In this interview Donald Cram talks briefly about his family and growing up in Vermont, Florida and New York, and this is followed by a description of his experiences at Rollins College and his start in the world of chemistry. Next he talks about his graduate work at the University of Nebraska with Norman Cromwell, the circumstances which led him to work at Merck during World War II, and his work at Merck and the chemists with whom he collaborated. He then talks at length about his doctoral work at Harvard, his research, his coursework, cumulative and foreign language exams, and his interaction with various members of the faculty. In 1947 he took a position at UCLA, and he describes much of his research through the early 1960s, Saul Winstein and his interactions with Winstein, and the changes that took place over thirty years in the UCLA chemistry department. The last part of the interview includes comments on the changes that have taken place in organic chemistry as a result of various factors, the advantages to the academic community of interactions with industry, the state and future of organic chemistry, and a description of his major research effort in the late 1970s, guest-host chemistry. It was this research that led to his sharing the Nobel Prize in 1987. In the final pages of the interview he talks about the influence of theory and theoretical papers on the development of chemistry.

Merck & Co., Inc.

1942 - 1945 Research Chemist

University of California, Los Angeles

1947 - 1948 American Chemical Society Fellow/Instructor

University of California, Los Angeles

1948 - 1950 Assistant Professor

University of California, Los Angeles

1950 - 1956 Associate Professor

University of California, Los Angeles

1956 - 1990 Professor

University of California, Los Angeles

1985 - 1995 Saul Winstein Professor of Chemistry

University of California, Los Angeles

1988 - 1990 University Professor

University of California, Los Angeles

1990 - present Emeritus Professor

Upjohn Co.

1952 - 1987 Consultant

Union Carbide Corporation

1961 - 1981 Consultant

Eastman Kodak

1981 - 1991 Consultant

Technion Co.

1984 - 1992 Consultant

Inst. Guido Donegani, Milan

1988 - 1991 Consultant

Leon B. Gortler

Leon Gortler is a professor of chemistry at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He holds A.B. and M.S. degrees from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Harvard University where he worked with Paul Bartlett. He has long been interested in the history of chemistry, in particular the development of physical organic chemistry, and has conducted over fifty oral and videotaped interviews with major American chemists.