Melvin Spencer Newman (March 10, 1908 – May 30, 1993) was an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

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 ...

professor, best known for inventing the

Newman projection A Newman projection is a drawing that helps visualize the 3-dimensional structure of a molecule. This projection most commonly sights down a carbon-carbon bond, making it a very useful way to visualize the stereochemistry of alkanes. A Newman pro ...

. Newman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, the youngest of Mae (née Polack) and Jacob K. Newman's four children."Newman, Jacob K.," in: James Terry White, ''

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'' is a multi-volume collection of biographical articles and portraits of Americans, published since the 1890s. The primary method of data collection was by sending questionnaires to subjects or the ...

'', v. 33, New York: J. T. White, 1947, p. 183. His paternal grandfather was the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

German-born investment banker and philanthropist Isidore Newman. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. When he was 14, they moved back to New York, where he attended Riverdale County School. From 1925 to 1932, he attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he obtained his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' in 1929 and his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in 1932, under the direction of Professor Rudolph J. Anderson. He was a member of

Zeta Beta Tau Zeta Beta Tau () is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded on December 29, 1898. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed from Zionism in the fraternity's early years when in 1954 the fraternity beco ...

. After

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

stays at Yale,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

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 ...

, he began his independent career as an instructor at

, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1940 and to full professor in 1944. He was a member of

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

Phi Lambda Upsilon Phi Lambda Upsilon National Honorary Chemical Society () was founded in 1899 at the Noyes Laboratory of the University of Illinois. Phi Lambda Upsilon was the first honor society dedicated to scholarship in a single discipline, chemistry. Object ...

Alpha Epsilon Delta Alpha Epsilon Delta () is a U.S. health preprofessional honor society. The organization currently has more than 144,000 members within 186 chapters at universities throughout the United States, making it the world's largest Honor Society serving ...

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 ...

and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. He was elected a member of the

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 1956. Newman received numerous awards, including the

(ACS) Award for Creative Work in Synthetic

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.; ...

in 1961, the

Morley Medal Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * ...

given by the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

section of the ACS in 1969, the

Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal The Wilbur Cross Medal, or Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal for Alumni Achievement, is an award by the Yale University Graduate School Alumni Association to recognize "...distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and p ...

by Yale in 1975, an honorary doctorate by the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

in 1975, the

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

section of the ACS award in 1976, and the Joseph Sullivant Medal by

in 1976. In addition, the

- which allows organic chemists to represent different conformations of molecules in space - was introduced by the chemist. Newman was an avid

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er. Newman married Beatrice Crystal in 1933. They had two daughters and two sons: Kiefer, Susan, Beth and Robert. His sister Alice Louis was

Nicolai Berezowsky Nicolai Tikhonovich Berezowsky (May 17, 1900August 27, 1953) was a Russian-born American violinist and composer. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 17, 1900, graduating from the Imperial Capella with honors when he was sixteen. As a ...

's first wife.

References

* Paquette, L. A.; Orchin, M
"Melvin Spencer Newman"
in ''National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: Biographical Memoirs'', vol. 73, 335-348. National Academy Press, 1998. * "Newman, Melvin Spencer," in: William Haynes (ed.), ''Chemical Who's who'', vol. 3, 1951, p. 545. {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Melvin Spencer 1908 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American chemists 20th-century American Jews Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Organic chemists Yale University alumni Columbia University people Harvard University staff Ohio State University faculty

See also

References