Rudolph Israel Pariser (December 8, 1923 – February 2, 2021) was an American physical and

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

chemist.

Biography

Rudolph Israel Pariser was born in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

, China to merchant parents, Ludwig Jacob Pariser and Lia Rubinstein. He attended the Von Hindenburg Schule in Harbin, an American Missionary School in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and American School in Japan in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. He left for the United States just before World War II broke out. Pariser received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1944, and his Ph. D. degree from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

in 1950. From 1944 to 1946, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and shortly afterward, he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. He became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

of the United States in 1944. Pariser spent most of his career as a

chemist working for

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

in the

Central Research In 1957, the research organization of the Chemicals Department of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was renamed Central Research Department, beginning the history of the premier scientific organization within DuPont and one of the foremost indus ...

Department at the Experimental Station. He rose to the level of Director of Polymer Sciences, leading it during a time of great innovation. After retiring from DuPont, he formed his own consulting company. Pariser is best known for his work with Robert G. Parr on the method of

molecular orbital In chemistry, a molecular orbital is a mathematical function describing the location and wave-like behavior of an electron in a molecule. This function can be used to calculate chemical and physical properties such as the probability of finding ...

computation now known (because it was independently developed by John A. Pople) as the Pariser–Parr–Pople method (PPP method), published both by Pariser and Parr and by Pople in almost simultaneous papers in 1953. On July 31, 1972, Pariser married Margaret Louise Marsh. He died on February 2, 2021, at the age of 97.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pariser, Rudolph 1923 births 2021 deaths University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni American physical chemists DuPont people United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II American School in Japan alumni American computational chemists University of California, Berkeley alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States