Robert George Bergman is an American chemist. He is Professor of the Graduate School and Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Early life and education

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Robert Bergman was the son of Joseph J. and Stella Bergman, née Horowitz. In 1963 he graduated from

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

with a degree in chemistry. Under the supervision of Jerome A. Berson, he received a PhD in 1966 from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. From 1966 to 1967 he was a NATO postdoctoral fellow at

Ronald Breslow Ronald Charles David Breslow (March 14, 1931 – October 25, 2017) was an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He was University Professor at Columbia University, where he was based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the De ...

's laboratory at

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 ...

, New York City.

Career

Bergman began his independent career at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in Pasadena where he was an Arthur Noyes Research Instructor (1967–1969), assistant professor (1969–1971), associate professor (1971–1973), and full professor (1973–1977). From 1977 to 2002, he was a chemistry professor at the

and since 1978 has also been a researcher at the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

. In 2002 he was appointed Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. Bergman transitioned to Emeritus status in 2016 and now holds to the titles of Professor of the Graduate School and Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Research

Bergman works in the field of

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.; ...

. He first investigated the reaction mechanisms of organic reactions at Caltech. He developed methods for the representation of very reactive molecules, for example 1,3-diradicals and vinyl cations. In 1972, he discovered the thermal cyclization of ''cis''-1,5-hexadiyne-3-ene to 1,4-dehydrobenzene-diradicals, now known as the

Bergman cyclization The Masamune-Bergman cyclization or Masamune-Bergman reaction or Masamune-Bergman cycloaromatization is an organic reaction and more specifically a rearrangement reaction taking place when an enediyne is heated in presence of a suitable hydrogen do ...

. This reaction later played a major role in understanding the mode of action of enediyne antitumor antibiotics. Since the mid-1970s, Bergman has also been working in the field of

organometallic chemistry Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...

. He contributed to the synthesis and reaction of organometallic complexes and investigated organometallic compounds with metal-oxygen and metal-nitrogen bonds. He also discovered the first soluble organometallic complexes of the transition metals, to which the addition of a saturated hydrocarbon (C-H activation, C-H insertion) succeeded.

Personal life

Since June 17, 1965, Bergman has been married. They have two sons.

Awards and honours

* 1969: Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship *1970: Teacher-Scholar Award (Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation) * 1978: Student Government Award for Excellence in Teaching (California Institute of Technology) * 1984: Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar *1985: Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award (Carleton College) * 1985: John Bailar Medal (University of Illinois) * 1986: ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry (American Chemical Society) * 1987: Arthur C. Cope Scholar award (American Chemical Society) * 1990: Edgar Fahs Smith Award (American Chemical Society) * 1990: Ira Remsen Award (American Chemical Society) * 1991: MERIT Award (National Institutes of Health) * 1994:

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic par ...

( U.S. Department of Energy) * 1995: Honorary PhD degree of Carleton College * 1996:

Arthur C. Cope Award The Arthur C. Cope Award is a prize awarded for achievement in the field of organic chemistry research. It is sponsored by the Arthur C. Cope Fund, and has been awarded annually since 1973 by the American Chemical Society. It consists of $25,000, ...

(American Chemical Society) * 1999:

Chemical Pioneer Award The Chemical Pioneer Award, established in 1966, is awarded by the American Institute of Chemists to recognize chemists or chemical engineers who have made outstanding contributions to advances in chemistry or the chemical profession. Recent rec ...

(American Institute of Chemists) * 2001: Edward Leete Award for Teaching and Research in Organic Chemistry (American Chemical Society) * 2002: Teaching Award (UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry) * 2003: James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry (American Chemical Society) * 2003: Monie A. Ferst Award (

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 ...

) * 2004: Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) * 2007:

NAS Award in Chemical Sciences The National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences is awarded for innovative research in the chemical sciences that in the broadest sense contributes to a better understanding of the natural sciences and to the benefit of humanity. Reci ...

(National Academy of Sciences) * 2013: George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry * 2014: Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Distinguished Schulich Lectureship Award *2014:

Welch Award in Chemistry The Welch Award in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Robert A. Welch Foundation, based in Houston, Texas, to encourage and recognise basic chemical research for the benefit of mankind. The award, which has been given since 1972, is one of the ...

* 2014:

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 ...

Robert Robinson Award The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

* 2017:

Wolf Prize in Chemistry The Wolf Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics and Arts. Laure ...

Memberships

* 1963:

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

* 1964:

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 ...

* 1966:

* 1984:

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 ...

* 1984:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

* 1995:

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

* 1999:

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 ...

Literature

* ''Who's Who in America''. 2007, , p. 341.

References

External links

''Robert G. Bergman'' on the side of his research group

''Robert G. Bergman'' on berkeley.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergman, Robert G. 1942 births Living people People from Chicago 21st-century American chemists UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory people Columbia University alumni Carleton College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates