About James Crafts
James Mason Crafts was an American chemist, mostly known for developing the Friedel–Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions with Charles Friedel in 1876. A research chemist for most of his career, Crafts also served as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1898 to 1900. James Mason Crafts (March 8, 1839 – June 20, 1917) was an American chemist, mostly known for developing the Friedel–Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions with Charles Friedel in 1876. It was in Paris that Crafts first met Charles Friedel, with whom he later carried out some of his most successful research. In 1868, he was appointed as the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he remained until 1870. Upon his second return to the United States, in 1891, Crafts became professor of organic chemistry at MIT (1892–97), where he also served as president from 1898 to 1900.
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