Roald Hoffmann:
Roald Hoffmann is a Polish-American chemist and Nobel laureate.
Birth:
July 18, 1937 Złoczów, Poland
Claim to Fame:
Hoffman is a Polish-American chemist who was awarded one half the 1981 Nobel Prize for his investigations into the mechanisms of chemical reactions. He was working with Robert Woodward on a set of rules to determine the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions based on the shape of the electron orbitals involved. These rules are known as the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. Woodward would not receive part of the Prize because he died two years prior, making him ineligible.
