About George S. Hammond
George Simms Hammond (May 22, 1921 – October 5, 2005) was an American scientist and theoretical chemist who developed "Hammond's postulate", and fathered organic photochemistry,–the general theory of the geometric structure of the transition state in an organic chemical reaction. Hammond's research is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. His research garnered him the Norris Award in 1968, the Priestley Medal in 1976, the National Medal of Science in 1994, and the Othmer Gold Medal in 2003. He served as the executive chairman of the Allied Chemical Corporation from 1979 to 1989. He was a chemist at the California Institute of Technology, and subsequently headed both the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the university. He conducted research at the University of Oxford and University of Basel as a Guggenheim Fellow and National Science Foundation Fellow, respectively. He served as the foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences from 1974 to 1978. A native of Maine, he was born and raised in Auburn; he attended nearby Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in chemistry in 1943. He completed his doctorate at Harvard University in 1947, under the mentorship of Paul Doughty Bartlett, and a postdoctorate at University of California, Los Angeles with Saul Winstein in 1948.
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