Brown, Herbert Charles (1912-2004)

US inorganic chemist who is noted for his research on boron compounds. He manufactured sodium borohydride, a reducing agent (a substance that reduces another substance, see reduction), and developed a simple technique to synthesize diborane. He also created a new class of compounds, the organoboranes, by reacting diborane with alkenes (unsaturated hydrocarbons containing one or more double bonds). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979 for his use of boron and phosphorus compounds, in organic syntheses.

Born to Russian émigrés in London, his family moved to Chicago when he was two. When his father died, Brown took on the responsibility of running the family hardware store and looking after his mother and three sisters. But he was determined to fulfil his potential and managed to attend junior college, where he became interested in chemistry. He gained a place at Chicago University, obtained his doctorate, and took a job at Wayne University, Detroit in 1943. He moved to Purdue University, Indiana in 1947, when he was offered a professorship in inorganic chemistry. He retired in 1978.