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Gabor A. Somorjai (born May 4, 1935 -) is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and is a leading researcher in the field of surface chemistry. Somorjai won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his contributions to the field and was awarded a National Medal of Science in 2002. May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ...
1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ...
Surface chemistry is the study of chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, usually between a gas and a solid or between a liquid and a solid. ...
Past winners of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry: 1978 Carl Djerassi 1979 Herman F. Mark 1980 Henry Eyring 1981 Joseph Chatt 1982 John C. Polanyi, George C. Pimentel 1983/4 Herbert S. Gutowsky, Harden M. McConnell, John A. Waugh 1984/5 Rudolph A. Marcus 1986 Elias James Corey, Albert Eschenmoser...
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science, also called the Presidential Medal of Science, is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social...
Early history
Somorjai was born in Budapest in 1935 to Jewish parents. He was saved from the Nazis when his mother sought the assistance of Raoul Wallenberg in 1944 who issued Swedish passports to Somorjai's mother, himself and his sister saving them from the Nazi death camps. While Somorjai's father ended up in the camp system, he was fortunate to survive but many of Somorjai's extended family ended up in the camp system. Nickname: Paris of the East, Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Location of Budapest in Hungary Country Hungary County Pest Mayor Gábor Demszky (SZDSZ) Area - City 525,16 km² - Land n/a km² - Water n/a km² Population - City (2006) 1,695,000 - Density 3570/km...
Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947) in passport photo from June 1944 Memorial to Raoul Wallenberg in Great Cumberland Place, London USPS Wallenberg Stamp, 1997 Memorial to Wallenberg in Budapest, Hungary (August 4, 1912 – July 16, 1947 (unconfirmed)) was a Swedish diplomat and a member of the influential Wallenberg family. ...
He was studying chemical engineering at the Technical University in Budapest in 1956. As a participant in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Somorjai left Hungary to go to the US after the Soviet invasion. Along with other Hungarian immigrants, Somorjai enrolled in post-graduate study at Berkeley and obtained his doctorate in 1960. He joined IBM's research staff in Yorktown Heights, New York for a few years but returned to Berkeley as an assistant professor in 1964. A University of Technology is an university with a focus on technology. ...
Combatants Soviet Union ÃVH Hungarian government, various nationalist militias Commanders Yuri Andropov Pál Maléter, Béla Király, Gergely Pongrátz, József Dudás Strength 150,000 troops, 6,000 tanks 100,000+ demonstrators (some later armed), unknown number of soldiers Casualties 720 killed according to official...
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Yorktown Heights is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York. ...
Chemical research The introduction of new technology such as low energy electron diffraction revolutionised the study of surfaces in the 1950's and 1960's. However, as these techniques needed high vacuum, studies were limited to surfaces such as silicon important for its electrical properties. In contrast, Somorjai was interested in surfaces such as platinum known for its chemical properties.
Somorjai discovered that the defects on surfaces is where catalytic reactions take place. When these defects break, new bonds are formed between atoms leading to complex organic compounds such as naptha to be converted into gasoline as an example. These findings led to greater understanding of subjects such as adhesion, lubrication, friction and absorption. His research also has important implications such as nanotechnology. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Catalysis. ...
Molecular gears from a NASA computer simulation. ...
In the 1990's, Somorjai started working with phyisicist Ron Shen on developing a technique such as sum frequency generation surface vibration spectroscopy to study surface reactions without the need for a vacuum chamber. He is also studying surface reactions nanotechnology at the atomic and molecular level using an atomic force microscope.
Somorjai's expertise in surfaces was used as a consultant to the 2002 Winter Olympics where he gave advice on how to make ice-skating surfaces as fast as possible. Somorjai's research had shed new light on ice demonstrating that skaters skated on vibrating molecules rather than water on top of the ice acting as a lubricant. The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were held in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. ...
During his career, Somorjai has published over 850 papers and three textbooks on surface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. He is now the most-often cited person in the fields of surface chemistry and catalysis.
Honours and awards Somorjai was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1979 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1983. He was awarded the Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his contribution to chemistry, sharing the honor with Professor Gerhard Ertl of the Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin. Somorjai was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contribution as a chemist in 2002. The American Chemical Society has also awarded him the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry and the Adamson Award in Surface Chemistry. In 2002, he was awarded the status of University Professor across the University of California network, an honour he shares with two dozen other academics. President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ...
The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. ...
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