Jay Kazuo Kochi (高知和夫, ''Kōchi Kazuo'',1927–2008) was an American physical organometallic chemist who held lectureship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and faculty positions at Case Institute of Technology, 1962-1969, (now Case Western Reserve University),

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

, 1969 to 1984, and the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

, 1984 to 2008.

Early life and education

Kochi was born to Japanese immigrant parents on May 17, 1927, in Los Angeles, California, where he and his family had lived until he and his family were imprisoned at the

Gila River War Relocation Center The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was lo ...

in 1942 just after the United States entered the Second World War and Executive Order 9066 was signed. After the war, Kochi and his family returned to California and Kochi later attended UCLA. Kochi received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

in 1949 and his Ph.D. at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

in 1952 with George S. Hammond and

Henry Gilman Henry Gilman (May 9, 1893 – November 7, 1986) was an American organic chemist known as the father of organometallic chemistry, the field within which his most notable work was done. He discovered the Gilman reagent, which bears his name. Earl ...

as advisors. He then spent short stints at Harvard University, Cambridge University, Shell Development Co., Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University), and Indiana University. For the majority of his faculty career, however, he was located at the

, where he was Welch Professor.

Research

Kochi's research examined the interactions of electron donors and acceptors. One topic of his study was the nitration of benzene to give nitrobenzene. Kochi's work showed that this reaction proceeds via a complex between

benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms ...

(the donor) and nitrosonium ion (the acceptor). He also contributed to many aspects of organometallic chemistry, including the discovery of Cu, Fe, and Ag-catalyzed cross-coupling processes (which preceded the discovery of the better known Pd and Ni-catalyzed versions), as well as several metal-catalyzed oxidative processes. At the time, these results were largely ignored by the synthetic organic chemistry community. Many decades later, interest in

base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

catalysis sparked significant efforts to further develop cross-coupling reactions catalyzed by metals such as Fe in particular. His research in organometallic chemistry emphasized the importance of electron-transfer processes and radical species as intermediates. Many of these results (and the results of other investigators) are summarized in a monograph.

Awards and honors

Kochi received many awards for his research, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He developed the

Kochi reaction The Kochi reaction is an organic reaction for the decarboxylation of carboxylic acids to alkyl halides with lead(IV) acetate and a lithium halide.''A New Method for Halodecarboxylation of Acids Using Lead(IV) Acetate'' Jay K. Kochi J. Am. Chem. ...

, a variation on the

Hunsdiecker reaction The Hunsdiecker reaction (also called the Borodin reaction or the Hunsdiecker–Borodin reaction) is a name reaction in organic chemistry whereby silver salts of carboxylic acids react with a halogen to produce an organic halide. It is an e ...

Personal life

Kochi was of Japanese descent and he and his family were forcibly

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

at the

during World War II. He died at his home in Houston, Texas on August 9, 2008, after a brief illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kochi, Jay 20th-century American chemists 1927 births 2008 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Houston faculty Indiana University faculty Japanese-American internees American academics of Japanese descent