Dear all, It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Prof. Jack Dunitz at the age of 98. Prof. Dunitz was a giant in the development of modern crystallographic methods, most notably in the determination of the crystal structure of ferrocene, confirming the “sandwich complex” nature of that molecule and ushering in the field of organometallic chemistry. As a crystallographer, mathematician, and chemist, Prof. Dunitz effectively bridged the gap between crystallography and chemistry, inspiring chemists to exploit the utility of the burgeoning field of crystallography. He was a professor at ETH-Zurich for over 60 years, and even after his “retirement” in 1990, dedicated his life to crystallographic research.
I have many fond memories of Prof. Dunitz from my time at ETH. Even at the age of 91, he still came into the office at least three times a week to pursue research programs; I am told he continued to come in regularly until Covid forced the campus closed. His wit and curiosity never dulled, and was enamored with new technologies that enabled various new forms of crystallographic research. He owned an iPad before I ever did! As a postdoc doing crystallography, Prof. Dunitz enjoyed calling me into his office, ostensibly to help him use some feature of CCDC Mercury, but in reality to discuss some new idea he had about crystal symmetry and exploiting it to gain some greater understanding of coordination complexes. He was the kind of person who had forgotten more chemistry than I will ever know, and these discussions were always enlightening and entertaining, mixing new theory with the history of crystallography, much of which he bore witness or contributed to. He will be sorely missed. If you would like to express your condolences, please use the following email address: jack_condole...@ethz.ch<mailto:jack_condole...@ethz.ch> Aaron ------------------------------------------ Aaron Finke Staff Scientist, MacCHESS Cornell University e-mail: af...@cornell.edu<mailto:af...@cornell.edu> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/
