Arne Haaland (15 February 1936 – 13 October 2023) was a Norwegian chemist. He took the dr. philos. degree at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

in 1969 and was an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in chemistry at the University of Oslo from 1964 to 1984, and then professor until his retirement. He was a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

. Haaland ran a laboratory for

gas electron diffraction Gas electron diffraction (GED) is one of the applications of electron diffraction techniques. The target of this method is the determination of the structure of gaseous molecules, i.e., the geometrical arrangement of the atoms from which a molec ...

. He, his co-workers and colleagues determined the structures of umpteen important chemical compounds in the gas phase. His main field of research was the

organometallic Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...

compounds. The list of such structure determinations includes the controversially debated beryllocene, dibenzene chromium, ferrocene, the structure of the phosphorus oxides P₄O₁₀ and P₄O₉, trimethylamuminium and its adducts with NMe₃, and the first stable silylene. Haaland was the author of many contributions on chemical bonding, in particular the dative bond and metallocenes.

References

1936 births 2023 deaths Norwegian chemists Academic staff of the University of Oslo Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters {{Norway-academic-bio-stub