George S. Hammond is noted for creating and developing the field of organic photochemistry, the study of the interaction between light and various organic materials. He is also credited with training many of the important American organic photochemists over a period of three decades. Some of the products that resulted from work in this field include catalysts used in the production of vinyl plastics, chemicals used to form the intricate circuit patterns on computer chips, and materials used in solar cells to convert the sun's energy to electrical power.
George Simms Hammond was born in Auburn, Maine, on May 22, 1921. His father, Oswald Kenric Hammond, was a farmer. His mother's maiden name was Marjorie Thomas. George attended Bates College in nearby Lewiston, Maine, where he graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1943. After graduation he was employed as a chemist with Rohm and Haas Corporation for two years, followed by a position with the Office of Scientific Research and Development at Harvard University, where he worked on the development of insect repellents. In 1945 he married Marian Reese. During their marriage they had five children, Kenric, Janet, Steven, Barbara, and Jeremy.
In 1947 Hammond received both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Harvard University. After postgraduate work with the Office of Naval Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, he joined the faculty of Iowa State University in 1948. He stayed there until 1958, rising to a full professor in the chemistry department.
While working at Iowa State, he began his studies of photochemical reactions. One area that especially interested him was the concept of sensitization. In a sensitized reaction, light is absorbed by one chemical in a solution, called a photoinitiator, and the resulting increase in energy is then passed on to another chemical to start the reaction. The use of a photoinitiator "sensitizes" a solution and allows chemical reactions to be triggered by certain frequencies of light. This concept is widely used in the production of integrated circuits on computer chips. In this process, a photosensitive chemical on the surface of the chip reacts with ultraviolet light passing through a mask, or pattern, to form the image of the desired circuit.
In 1958 Hammond accepted a position as professor of organic chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, where he continued his work on photochemical reactions. Many of his papers published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society during the period 1959-1962 established the foundation for modern photochemistry.
During the 1960s, Hammond and his students made many important observations on various photochemical reactions. One of the areas of study was the chemistry of azo-bis-isobutrynitrile (AIBN). They observed that many of the components of this chemical were held in place by the surrounding solvent molecules and ended up reacting with each other, rather than with neighboring chemicals. They found that this "cage effect" could be altered to control the amount of reaction between the AIBN components and other chemicals. Based on this discovery, AIBN became one of the most frequently used catalysts to start and control the chemical reactions required for the production of vinyl plastics.
In 1964 Hammond was named the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at Caltech, and in 1968 he became Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1963 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965. The American Chemical Society honored Hammond three times while he was at Caltech: first with the award in petroleum chemistry in 1961, then with the James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry in 1967, and finally with the award in chemical education in 1972.
Hammond left Caltech in 1972 to become a professor of chemistry and vice-chancellor for natural sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He gave up his position as vice-chancellor in 1974 in order to spend half his time as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, while continuing his research and teaching duties at the university. In 1976 the American Chemical Society honored him with their highest award, the Priestley Medal, for his distinguished service to the profession of chemistry. In 1977 Hammond's first marriage ended in divorce. He married Eva L. Menger shortly thereafter. Eva had two children by a previous marriage, Kirsten Menger-Anderson and Lenore Menger-Anderson.
In 1978 Hammond left the academic world to join Allied Signal Corporation in Morristown, New Jersey, as Associate Director of Corporate Research. Allied Signal was engaged in the manufacture of aerospace and automotive products, chemicals, fibers, plastics, and advanced materials. Hammond became Director of Integrated Chemical Systems in 1979, and Executive Director of Bioscience, Metals, and Ceramics in 1984.
Hammond retired from Allied Signal in 1988 to become a consultant. In 1991 he joined the faculty of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, as Director of Materials Science, and in 1992 he was named a Distinguished Visiting Research Professor. In 1994, while holding the position of Senior McMaster Fellow at the Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green, Hammond was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Science for his work in organic photochemistry. He was also awarded the Seaborg Medal the same year.
Today, Hammond continues his research work at Bowling Green and is active in several scientific groups.
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