Reynold Clayton Fuson (June 1, 1895 – August 4, 1979) was an American chemist.

Biography

Born in Wakefield, Illinois, Fuson attended

Central Normal College Canterbury College was a private institution located in Danville, Indiana, United States from 1878 to 1951. The school was known as Central Normal College prior to 1946. History The college was founded in 1876 as part of the larger statewide univ ...

Danville, Indiana Danville is a town in and the county seat of Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was 9,001 at the 2010 census, up from 6,418 at the 2000 census. In 2019 the estimated population was 10,126. History Danville was founded in 1 ...

, where after one year in 1914 he was certified as a teacher. He received a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in chemistry from the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

, a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. He accepted a postdoctoral appointment at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with E. P. Kohler and remained there to serve briefly as an instructor. He joined the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

in 1927. He retired in 1963 after thirty-five years as a distinguished teacher and researcher. After retirement from the University of Illinois, Fuson spent fourteen years at the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

as a distinguished visiting professor and then as a professor emeritus. Fuson published 285 scientific articles and wrote or co-wrote five textbooks, including ''The Systematic Identification of Organic Compounds'' with R. L. Shriner and later including David Curtin and remains in print today with additional authors. Fuson’s research interests were wide-ranging. He enunciated the principle of vinylogy which is now taught in terms of resonance in

valence bond theory In chemistry, valence bond (VB) theory is one of the two basic theories, along with molecular orbital (MO) theory, that were developed to use the methods of quantum mechanics to explain chemical bonding. It focuses on how the atomic orbitals of ...

, elucidated the mechanism of the conjugate addition of

Grignard reagents A Grignard reagent or Grignard compound is a chemical compound with the general formula , where X is a halogen and R is an organic group, normally an alkyl or aryl. Two typical examples are methylmagnesium chloride and phenylmagnesium bromide ...

to unsaturated carbonyls compounds, and discovered stable enols and enediols of sterically hindered molecules. Fuson’s accomplishments were recognized by membership in the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

. He received the

Nichols Medal The Nichols Medal is the annual award to the "best and fairest" player in Australian Rules football competition the Northern Territory Football League in the Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally t ...

, the

Manufacturing Chemists' Association American Chemistry Council (ACC), formerly known as the Manufacturing Chemists' Association (at its founding in 1872) and then as the Chemical Manufacturers' Association (from 1978 until 2000), is an industry trade association for American chemic ...

Award for College Teaching, and the John R. Kuebler Award of

Alpha Chi Sigma Alpha Chi Sigma () is a professional fraternity specializing in the fields of the chemical sciences. It has both collegiate and professional chapters throughout the United States consisting of both men and women and numbering more than 70,000 mem ...

. He was a member of the editorial boards of Organic Syntheses and the

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytica ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuson, Reynold C. 1895 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American chemists Harvard University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Crawford County, Illinois University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Minnesota alumni University of Montana alumni University of Nevada, Reno faculty