Memoirs of Professor James Cullen Martin

Abstract

The invitation by the organizing committee of ISOCS-21, which was held in Madrid, July 2004, to address the memorial speech for the late Professor James C. Martin reminded me at once of his gentle and generous character and his great contributions to the chemistry of hypervalent molecules. Although he died in April 1999, I believe that it is still appropriate to do so and also I am heartily honored by the invitation. As a Japanese chemist, I do not know the formal European tradition of the memorial speech, the memoirs consists of two parts, that is, the first part is dedicated to his personal history and the second one describes short history and back ground of the chemistry of hypervalent compounds and is devoted mainly to the accomplishment of J. C. Martin. Here, all the materials I used for the speech are shown accompanied by some short comments.

Kewords:

• 10-C-5
• σ-aromaticity
• hypervalent
• periodinane
• phosphorane
• sulfurane
• three center-four electron bond

I heartily acknowledge the help of the Professors Gregory S. Giorami of University of Illinois and Ned A. Porter of Vanderbilt University; they sent me detailed documents on Professor James C. Martin. I also acknowledge the eldest son of J. C., i.e., Professor Joseph V. Martin, who is now at Rutgers University for providing, a variety of private and family photos.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.