Michael H Abraham (11 December 1931, London – 19 January 2021) was an English chemist. He mainly worked in the area of

physical organic chemistry Physical organic chemistry, a term coined by Louis Hammett in 1940, refers to a discipline of organic chemistry that focuses on the relationship between chemical structures and chemical reaction, reactivity, in particular, applying experimental to ...

, with his research interests being

hydrogen bonding In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (H-bond) is a specific type of molecular interaction that exhibits partial covalent character and cannot be described as a purely electrostatic force. It occurs when a hydrogen (H) atom, Covalent bond, covalently b ...

solvation Solvations describes the interaction of a solvent with dissolved molecules. Both ionized and uncharged molecules interact strongly with a solvent, and the strength and nature of this interaction influence many properties of the solute, includi ...

, linear free energy relationships (LFER),

quantitative structure-activity relationship Quantitative may refer to: * Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties * Quantitative analysis (disambiguation) * Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry * Statistics, also known as quantitative analysis ...

s (QSAR) and solute-solvent interactions. A faculty member of

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

since 1988, Abraham was known within his field for creating the Abraham General Solvation Model.

Biography

Abraham was born 11 December 1931 in London to Judah and Elizabeth Abraham. He was one of four boys. He attended Magnus Grammar School in

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

before graduating with

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

from Northern Polytechnic London, where he studied chemistry, in 1951. He then earned his PhD from University College London (UCL) under Alwyn Davies, and later his

DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

in 1974. He became a reader at Battersea Polytechnic until 1988, when he returned to UCL. Between 1957 and 1969, Abraham largely focused on the chemistry of

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. Key works done by Abraham and his UCL colleagues include the measuring and calculation of molecular properties of thousands of molecules. These properties include H-bond acidity and basicity, dipolarity and polarisability. He received two Ebert awards from the American Pharmaceutical Association: one in 1992 for his paper ''Role of hydrogen bonding in general anaesthesia'', and again in 2002 for his paper on the "valuation of human intestinal absorption data and subsequent derivation". His work led him to appear on

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

' list of Highly Cited Researchers.

Personal life

Michael Abraham and his wife Elisabeth Mayer (died 1999) had two sons, Benjamin and Jonathan. Elisabeth had also been a PhD student at UCL. Abraham was a hobby landscape painter and held several exhibitions throughout London. Additionally, he enjoyed classical, particularly chamber, music. Abraham died on 19 January 2021, aged 89.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

List of Publications
on the UCL website (archive)
Profile Page
on the UCL website (archive)
Michael H. Abraham
on

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Michael H 1931 births 2021 deaths English chemists Place of death missing Academics of University College London Alumni of University College London Academics of the University of Surrey People educated at Magnus Church of England School Scientists from London Alumni of the University of North London