Boranes and Beyond

Book excerpt: Tracing the life of a giant in inorganic chemistry and key trends in his science, Boranes and Beyond follows Hawthorne from his mid-American origins to the halls of Harvard and UCLA and back again. It naturally details the accomplishments in his lab. This book is a fascinating mixture of science and autobiography. Prof. Hawthorne won the Priestley Medal, the highest award of the American Chemical Society, for his pioneering work in elucidating the chemistry of boron. He has chronicled in this book the developments in his lab which ultimately led to this achievement. Not content to rest on his laurels, after retiring from UCLA Prof. Hawthorne explored the use of boron in biomedicine and directed the International Institute of Nano & Molecular Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia.