Lee Irvin Smith (July 22, 1891 – March 29, 1973) was an American organic chemist who spent his research career on the faculty at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where he served as chief of the chemistry department's organic chemistry division.

Early life and education

Smith was born in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, Indiana in 1891, the oldest of three sons. He was raised mostly in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, where the family moved when Smith was a child. His father was a

piano maker The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and Smith learned to play from a young age. Smith attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and developed an interest in chemistry after a course taught by

William Lloyd Evans William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

. Smith received his bachelor's degree in 1913 and remained at Ohio State for a master's degree received in 1915. He then moved to

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 higher le ...

, where he studied

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

under the supervision of

Elmer Peter Kohler Elmer Peter Kohler (November 6, 1865 - May 24, 1938) was an American organic chemist who spent his career on the faculty at Bryn Mawr College and later at Harvard University. At both institutions he was notable for his effectiveness in teaching. ...

. He received a second master's degree from Harvard in 1917 and his PhD in 1920. His graduate work was interrupted by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, during which he served as a second lieutenant and worked on a wartime project with Kohler and others on

Lewisite Lewisite (L) (A-243) is an organoarsenic compound. It was once manufactured in the U.S., Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union for use as a Chemical warfare, chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. Although the substa ...

from late 1917 to the end of the conflict in 1918.

Academic career

Smith was appointed as an instructor of chemistry at the

– not yet a major research institution in chemistry at the time – following the completion of his PhD in 1920. By 1932 he had become

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

and the chief of the organic division of the department of chemistry, a position he would occupy for over 25 years. His work in this position is recognized as influential in establishing the university's role in organic chemistry research. Starting in 1932 he recruited young scientists to expand the department, including

C. Frederick Koelsch Charles Frederick Koelsch (31 January 1907 - 24 December 1999) was an American organic chemist who spent his faculty career at the University of Minnesota. Education and academic career Koelsch was born in Boise, Idaho in 1907 in a family of G ...

Paul Doughty Bartlett Paul Doughty Bartlett (August 14, 1907 – October 11, 1997) was an American chemist. Bartlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Indianapolis. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1928. After his graduation from Harvard with ...

, and later Richard T. Arnold. Smith stepped down from his chief position in 1958 and was succeeded by William E. Parham, and retired fully in 1960. Throughout his academic career Smith also worked as an industry consultant with Merck & Co. and

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

. Smith served on a number of editorial boards and was the president of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

's organic division in 1941–2. He was elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1944.

Research

Smith is best known for his synthesis of

vitamin E Vitamin E is a group of eight fat soluble compounds that include four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Vitamin E deficiency, which is rare and usually due to an underlying problem with digesting dietary fat rather than from a diet low in vitami ...

in 1939. He also published extensively on related tocopherol compounds. He was also the first to publish a synthesis of a bicyclopropyl ketone. In addition his research group studied

alkylbenzene The alkylbenzenes are derivatives of benzene, in which one or more hydrogen atoms are replaced by alkyl groups of different sizes. They are a subset of the aromatic hydrocarbons. The simplest member is toluene, in which a hydrogen atom of the benze ...

s, benzoquinones, and the

Jacobsen rearrangement The Jacobsen rearrangement is a chemical reaction, commonly described as the migration of an alkyl group in a sulfonic acid derived from a polyalkyl- or polyhalobenzene: The exact reaction mechanism is not completely clear, but evidence indicat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Lee Irvin 20th-century American chemists Organic chemists University of Minnesota faculty 1891 births 1973 deaths Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences