UF Alumnus Awarded Nobel Prize!

  Leading organic chemist and current Erskine Fellow Professor Bob Grubbs has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Robert Grubbs, who earned a master's degree in chemistry from UF in 1965, jointly received science's supreme honor Wednesday for work that has revolutionized the plastics and pharmaceutical industries.

Grubbs, Richard R. Shrock of MIT and Yves Chauvin of the Institut Francais du Petrole in Rueil-Malmaison, France, received the award for the development of a synthetic technique that not only greatly increases the repertoire of molecules that can be produced industrially, but also sharply decreases the amount of waste materials that must be disposed during production.

The technique, called metathesis, "represents a great step forward for 'green chemistry,' reducing potentially hazardous waste through smarter production," the Nobel committee said in making the announcement. Metathesis, which literally means "change places," involves chemical reactions in which two molecules exchange fragments under the influence of a catalyst, a third molecule that promotes the reaction without itself being consumed. In normal use, the technique can add a large fragment containing many atoms to another, growing molecule, in one fell swoop.

Grubbs, who later earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University, has been teaching at the California Institute of Technology since 1978.



Reached by e-mail in New Zealand, where he is attending a four-day conference, Grubbs credits UF - and one man in particular - with launching his career in chemistry. Grubbs headed to UF, the state's large land-grant university, to study agriculture. That was short-lived. "An outstanding young professor (at the time), Merle Battiste, allowed me to become involved in research in organic chemistry," Grubbs wrote. "His guidance and support started me on my career. So yes, because of Merle, the foundation for my career was set at the U of F. Go gators."

Battiste, now 72, was Grubb's research advisor and remembers a "cooperative, enthusiastic" young man who enjoyed gabbing about chemistry. The two remain close friends. "He and I would stay up late in my office and talk about chemistry," said Battiste, who retired two years ago as a professor emeritus from UF. "We convinced him to change his major." It was only a matter of time before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences took notice Grubbs' achievements, he said.

"I'm tickled pink," Battiste said. "I don't want to claim much of the credit, It's about his research within the last 20 years. But I was glad to be there at the beginning."

Robert Hanrahan, father of Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, was there at the start, too. Grubbs was one of only a handful of students selected for an honors course in general chemistry, Hanrahan recalled Wednesday evening. "Bobby Grubbs showed promise even as a freshman," Hanrahan said. "He was brighter and more intense than the typical student."

UF's only other graduate to go on to receive a Nobel Prize was Marshall Nirenberg. In 1968 he was honored for his investigations with the National Institutes of Health that led to the demonstration that messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) is required for protein synthesis and can be used to decipher various aspects of the genetic code.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1948 and went on to receive a master's degree in zoology four years later.

Related Links:
   Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005
   Caltech Press Release
   Gainesville Sun Article



Header collage graphic produced by Caltech. Some text sourced from Gainesville Sun article.