James A. Ibers was the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry before becoming an emeritus professor of chemistry at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

upon retirement. He is recognized for contributions to inorganic chemistry, especially in the areas of coordination chemistry, bio-inorganic chemistry, solid state synthesis and

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

. Ibers passed on December 14, 2021, at the age of 91.

Education

Ibers received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

. His thesis, awarded in 1954, was done under the direction of Verner F. Schomoker and James H. Sturdivant.

Career

After graduation, Ibers accepted a staff scientist position at Shell Development Company and later

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

. Starting in 1965 until his retirement, Ibers was a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University. His broad research interests included many aspects of organometallic, bioinorganic, and solid state chemistry,.Sunshine, Steven A.; Kang, Doris; Ibers, James A. "A new low-temperature route to metal polychalcogenides: solid-state synthesis of potassium titanium sulfide (K4Ti3S14), a novel one-dimensional compound" Journal of the American Chemical Society 1987, volume 109, pp. 6202-4. Ibers was a noted pioneer in the applications of X-Ray Crystallography to chemical problems and issues associated with inorganic bonding.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibers, James A. Inorganic chemists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Solid state chemists Northwestern University faculty California Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science