Herbert C. Brown

Herbert Charles Brown (22 May 1912 – 19 December 2004) was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes. Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London, to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Zhitomir, Pearl (née Gorinstein) and Charles Brovarnik, a hardware store manager and carpenter. His family moved to Chicago in June 1914, when he was two years old. Brown attended Crane Junior College in Chicago, where he met Sarah Baylen, whom he would later marry. The college was under threat of closing, and Brown and Baylen transferred to Wright Junior College. In 1935 he left Wright and that autumn entered the University of Chicago, completing two years of studies in three quarters to earn a B.S. in 1936. That same year, he became a naturalized United States citizen, and began graduate studies at Chicago. On February 6, 1937, Brown married Baylen, whom he would later credit with sparking an interest in hydrides of boron that would eventually lead to the work for which he, together with Georg Wittig, would be awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1979, and the following year received his degree as Ph.D. Unable to find a position in industry, he decided to accept a postdoctoral position, beginning his academic career. He became an instructor at Chicago in 1939, and held the position for four years before moving to Wayne University in Detroit as an assistant professor.