George Michael Sheldrick, FRS (born 17 November 1942, in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, England) is a British chemist who specialises in

molecular structure Molecular geometry is the three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms that constitute a molecule. It includes the general shape of the molecule as well as bond lengths, bond angles, torsional angles and any other geometrical parameters that determ ...

determination. He is one of the most cited workers in the field, having over 280,000 citations as of 2020 and an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 113. He was a professor at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

from 1978 until his retirement in 2011.

Early life

Sheldrick was born on 17 November 1942 in

, England. He was educated at Huddersfield New College, then an all-boys

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

. He completed 9 O-Levels, 6

A-Levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

, and 2 S-Levels. At A-Level, he achieved a distinction (the highest grade) in chemistry, mathematics and physics. Sheldrick was awarded a Major Scholarship to study

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

. He specialised in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

in his final year. He graduated in 1963 with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. He remained at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

to undertake postgraduate research under the

supervision Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight. Etymology The English noun "supervision" derives from the two Latin words "super" (above) and "videre" (see, observe). Spelling The spelling is "Supervision" in Standard E ...

Evelyn Ebsworth Evelyn may refer to: Places * Evelyn, London *Evelyn Gardens, a garden square in London * Evelyn, Ontario, Canada * Evelyn, Michigan, United States * Evelyn, Texas, United States * Evelyn, Wirt County, West Virginia, United States * Evelyn ...

. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1966. The topic of his thesis was the investigation of inorganic

hydrides In chemistry, a hydride is formally the anion of hydrogen( H−). The term is applied loosely. At one extreme, all compounds containing covalently bound H atoms are called hydrides: water (H2O) is a hydride of oxygen, ammonia is a hydride of ...

using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and was title "''N.M.R. Studies of Inorganic Hydrides''".

Academic career

In 1966, Sheldrick was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

. During his time as an academic at the

, he also taught within the Faculty of Chemistry. He was a demonstrator from 1966 to 1971, and a lecturer from 1971 to 1978. Sheldrick joined the

in 1978. There, he was first

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Inorganic Chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...

, then later Professor of

Structural Chemistry Structural chemistry is a part of chemistry and deals with spatial structures of molecules (in the gaseous, liquid or solid state) and solids (with extended structures that cannot be subdivided into molecules). The main tasks are: * The formulat ...

. In 2011, he retired from full-time academia and was appointed Niedersachsen Professor (IE Emeritus Professor).

Work

Sheldrick deals with molecular structure elucidation by X-ray diffraction. He is the lead developer of the SHELX program suite, which is freely available online. In 2011, a graphical user interface for SHELX refinements called ShelXle was released.

Personal life

On 13 July 1968, Sheldrick married Katherine Elizabeth Herford. Together they have four children. His younger brother, William S. Sheldrick (1945-2015), was a professor of analytical chemistry at

Ruhr University The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

, Germany until his retirement in 2010.

Honours

*1970

Meldola Medal The Meldola Medal and Prize was awarded annually from 1921 to 1979 by the Chemical Society and from 1980 to 2008 by the Royal Society of Chemistry to a British chemist who was under 32 years of age for promising original investigations in chemistr ...

of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

*1978 Corday-Morgan Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry *1988

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft *1999 Carl-Hermann Medal of the German Society for Crystallography *2001

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

*2004 Max Perutz Prize of the European Crystallographic Association *2009 Gregori Aminoff Prize of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

*2011

Ewald Prize Ewald is a given name and surname used primarily in Germany and Scandinavia. It derives from the Germanic roots ''ewa'' meaning "law" and '' wald'' meaning "power, brightness". People and concepts with the name include: Surnames * Douglas Ewald ( ...

of the International Union of Crystallography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheldrick, George Michael English chemists British crystallographers Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge 1942 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Academic staff of the University of Göttingen People educated at Huddersfield New College Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge