ADVANCES AT THE INTERFACE OF POLYHEDRAL BORANE CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE

Abstract

I first met Gordon during the autumn of 1960 when we were both located at Harvard. Gordon was an Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry while I was on temporary appointment as a Visiting Lecturer teaching Paul Bartlett's graduate course on organic chemistry. My stay at Harvard was made possible by a leave of absence from the Rohm and Haas Company, Redstone Arsenal Research Division. Gordon's research at the time was concerned with the study of the NMR phenomena associated with the acid-base complexes of boranes and Lewis bases. He was just beginning to enter the emerging field of modern organometallic chemistry. My interests at that time, and since, were centered upon the exploratory chemistry of the larger boranes, polyhedral borane anions and the carboranes. I had not yet discovered metallacarborane chemistry, an event of 1965. Both Gordon and I interacted scientifically with Bill Lipscomb during our time at Harvard. This was a truly exciting era since Lipscomb was developing his bonding theory for boranes and rapidly determining the structures of a variety of borane derivatives made available by the research community. Early in 1961 I returned to my industrial position and in 1962 I became a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. Gordon returned to England as a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Queen Mary College, the University of London. Later, Gordon became a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Bristol with astounding success.

Throughout the years Gordon has always provided me with invitations to participate in important scientific meetings and lectures in Britain. The first instance in which Gordon entertained me occurred in 1963 when he arranged my appointment as a special lecturer at the University of London and several other universities. The number of invitations which Gordon has extended to me over the years is too large to recall, but I shall always be grateful for his friendship and help extended to me in the earliest part of my career. Consequently, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend this meeting in Waco and to interact with my old friend, Gordon Stone. I wish him well even though he insists upon drawing dicarbollide-containing structures “upside-down”!

Keywords:

• carboranes
• closomers
• metallacarboranes
• polyhedral boranes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The people and organizations who have materially contributed to this research are listed below.

Our research has been made possible by funding from the following institutions to which we are indebted.

	National Science Foundation
	National Cancer Institute (NIH)
	Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (DOE)
	Department of Energy
	University of Missouri
	U.S. Army (Picatinny Arsenal)
	Honeywell

The research, itself, was carried out by students and postdoctoral collaborators in the UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and the International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine (I²NM²), University of Missouri. Drs. Jalisatgi, Lee, Safronov and Ma are faculty members in the I²NM².

Table

Lastly, I thank the organizers of the Stone Symposium for the invitation to speak and participate in a celebration of the life of one of England's greatest chemists, my friend, Gordon Stone.