Herbert S. Gutowsky

Herbert Sander Gutowsky was born on November 8, 1919, one of seven children of Otto and Hattie Meyer Gutowsky of Bridgman, Michigan. He credited his childhood on a produce farm with teaching him the importance of hard work. Much of his work dealt with infrared spectrophotometry, but he also became familiar with NMR, which was being used in nuclear physics for the measurement of nuclear magnetic moments. Gutowsky collaborated with George Pake, resulting in the publication of several important papers on the use of NMR to study molecular structure and motion in solids. ==Academic career==

Gutowsky became an instructor in chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1948, He was active in researching molecular and solid-state structure, using infrared (IR) and radio frequency spectroscopy, and doing pioneering work with nuclear magnetic resonance and electron paramagnetic resonance. A member of the American Physical Society, he chaired its Division of Chemical Physics from 1974 to 1975. As a research professor of chemistry at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, Gutowsky was active as a researcher and teacher from 1983 to 2000. During this phase of his research career, he used Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy to study the activity of small, weakly bonded molecules in the gas phase. ==Research==

The 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by physicists Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell for their independent discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. In nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a substance to be analyzed is exposed to electromagnetic radiation under controlled conditions in a magnetic field. Selected wavelengths of radiation will be absorbed by the substance depending on its chemical composition. The absorption spectrum of the material indicates the wavelengths that have been absorbed, enabling researchers to determine the molecular structure of the substance. Gutowsky's work was essential both in understanding the behavior and capabilities of NMR as a scientific instrument and relating it to core concepts in chemistry. Understanding and applying NMR involved chemical, physical and electronic expertise. Gutowsky employed a variety of strategies to ensure that the observed results that he and others were obtaining with NMR were consistently described, understood, and theoretically explained. Through rigorous calculation, convergence, calibration, experimental characterization, and correlation to chemical concepts, he developed experimental control of NMR as a scientific instrument, Gutowsky looked to molecular structure and theory for explanations of what became known as "chemical shift". In addition, Apollo Saika and Illinois physicist Charles Pence Slichter used correlations between the electronegativity of atoms bound to fluorine and the chemical shift data from the group's fluorine research, to simplify the formula originally proposed for the chemical shift by quantum physicist Norman Ramsey at Harvard. As a result of their work it became clear that "The chemical shift is observed whenever two or more nuclei of the same isotopic species have a different environment, a separate resonance absorption usually being observed for each distinct group with an intensity proportional to the number of nuclei in the group. Nuclei may be magnetically different because either they are in chemically distinct groups or they have a different spatial environment." Gutowsky's careful attention to anomalies, and the insistence that they be explained, led to the discovery of a further mechanism, the exchange of molecular groups, named chemical exchange. He early postulated that multiplets observed with acids in aqueous solutions might collapse into a single line as a result of increased exchange rates. However, it was difficult to find molecular systems whose exchange rate could be monitored precisely enough to observe this. The rate equations of Gutowsky, McCall, and Slichter (1951) were used by Gutowsky and Saika to investigate proton exchange in aqueous electrolyte solutions. They were able to apply the theory to more than two sites and calculate the predicted collapse of the multiplet structure as the rate of exchange increased. However, they were unable to present cases in which the actual collapse was observable. They were able to demonstrate that molecules "jumped" between states as a result of increases in temperature. Given enough energy, all forms of a molecules could jump to the highest possible state, and any multiplets in the magnetic resonance signal would converge. This work initiated a new research area in which NMR was used to study the dynamics of molecules. Quiet, kind and thoughtful, Gutowsky focused on science and worked very closely with all his research associates. using NMR, fluorescence, and pulsed light/oxygen to study the evolution of biomembranes and investigate the physico-chemical mechanisms of photosynthesis. After the early death of his friend Willis H. Flygare in 1981, Gutowsky established a second research career, extending Flygare's work with Fourier transform spectroscopy. Gutowsky's group examined the rotational spectra of weakly bound molecules in the gas phase, and was the first to use this method to study trimers, tetramers, and pentamers. and the rotational spectrum of the benzene dimer. ==Awards and honors==

Herbert Gutowsky was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1983/84 for "his pioneering work in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in chemistry". More specifically, the prize committee cited explicitly his truly outstanding physical chemistry research results as follows: Gutowsky's many awards and honors include the following: • 1960, Member of the National Academy of Sciences • 1966, Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, American Chemical Society • 1969, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences • 1974, Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance • 1976, National Medal of Science • 1982, Member of the American Philosophical Society • 1984, Wolf Prize in Chemistry • 1992, Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award, Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy • 2002, The Noyes Laboratory at the University of Illinois, where Gutowsky and others worked, was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society. • 2016, Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society ==Personal==

Gutowsky was an avid bicyclist in his early life, and also a bird-watcher. He later became very interested in growing roses in his own garden. He was married twice, in 1949 to Barbara Stuart with whom he had three sons, and in 1982 to Virginia Warner. ==See also==