Kenichi Fukui
4 October 1918 – 9 January 1998
Kenichi Fukui (1918–1998) was a Japanese chemist who developed frontier molecular orbital theory, which explains chemical reactivity in terms of the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roald Hoffmann, becoming the first Asian scientist to receive the chemistry prize.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Kenichi Fukui.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 80 years →
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) Overlapped 80 years →
- Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002) Overlapped 80 years →
- Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) Overlapped 80 years →
- Bill Hewlett (1913–2001) Overlapped 80 years →
- Chung Ju-yung (1915–2001) Overlapped 80 years →
Life events
Born the eldest of three sons of a foreign trade merchant and factory manager.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCompleted his degree in the Department of Industrial Chemistry before working on synthetic fuel chemistry during the war.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBecame a full professor after serving as a lecturer and assistant professor at the university.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgProposed, with Teijiro Yonezawa and Haruo Shingu, that reactivity in aromatic hydrocarbons is governed by the frontier electrons in the highest occupied molecular orbital.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShared the prize with Roald Hoffmann for their independent theories on the course of chemical reactions.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAwarded Japan's highest honour for cultural and scientific achievement.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLed the institute after retiring from his Kyoto University chair.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHeaded the newly founded research institute for the remainder of his career.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied of peritoneal cancer at the age of 79.
Source: en.wikipedia.org