Interview with Harry B. Gray

HARRY B. GRAY (b. 1935) INTERVIEWED BY SHIRLEY K. COHEN SEPTEMBER 2000 – MARCH 2001 AND HEIDI ASPATURIAN JANUARY – MAY 2016 Photo taken in 1997 ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Chemistry Abstract Two interviews in seven and six sessions respectively, with Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry. The first series of interviews, conducted in 2000-01 with Shirley Cohen, deals with Gray’s life and career up to that time. The second series, conducted in 2016 with Heidi Aspaturian, covers the period 2001–2016, expands on a number of topics discussed in the first interview series, and adds to the account of Gray’s earlier decades. Discussion topics common to the two interviews are cross-referenced in both texts. 2000–01 Interview Gray opens this interview series with a description of his family roots and formative years in Kentucky’s tobacco-farming country, including his youthful career with the local newspaper and early interest in chemistry. He then provides an account of his undergraduate studies at Western Kentucky State College (BS 1957), graduate work with F. Basolo and R. Pearson at Northwestern University http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H (PhD 1960), and postdoctoral work with C. Ballhausen at the University of Copenhagen, where he pioneered the development of ligand field theory. As a professor at Columbia University, he continued work at the frontiers of inorganic chemistry, published several books and, through an affiliation with Rockefeller University, was drawn to interdisciplinary research, which led him to accept a faculty position at Caltech in 1966. He talks about his approach to teaching and his research in inorganic chemistry and electron transfer at Caltech, his interactions with numerous Caltech personalities, including A. Beckman, G. Hammond, A. Kuppermann, J. Labinger, R. Marcus, L. Pauling, and J. Roberts, his efforts to revamp the undergraduate curriculum, and his tenure as chair of the chemistry and chemical engineering division. He discusses the vision for and construction of the Beckman Institute, its multidisciplinary programs, and his tenure as the facility’s founding director (1986–2001). The interview concludes with Gray’s assessment of chemistry’s key advances over the previous thirty years and predictions for the future. 2016 Interview In this follow-up to his 2000–01 interview, Gray elaborates on his family history and youthful interests, including his early fascination with the chemistry of color, his first patent at age eighteen, and his rapid rise through the ranks of his hometown newspaper in Bowling Green, Kentucky, capped by a front-page interview with a very young Elvis Presley. He describes his experiences growing up in the segregated South and his father’s controversial stance in support of school integration in the 1950s. He talks at length about his years as chairman of Caltech’s chemistry and chemical engineering division (CChE), particularly his experiences recruiting future Nobel laureates R. Grubbs, R. Marcus, and A. Zewail onto the faculty and his interactions with Caltech administrators, trustees, and donors. There is extensive discussion of his somewhat unorthodox but highly successful approach to teaching and mentoring undergraduates, as well as recollections of his involvement with the Caltech theater arts program and student pranks. He discusses his solar and alternative energy research and his work over the last decade with “Gray’s Solar Army,” a worldwide network of students engaged in testing potential catalysts for solar cells. He shares his perspectives on chemistry as “the 21st century science,” details his current research into electron transfer and redox reactions, and comments on his relationship with a succession of Caltech administrators. A look back at his professional awards, including a 1986 White House visit to receive the National Medal of Science, and his thoughts on how chemistry and Caltech have evolved in the last fifty years round out this interview. This interview is partially restricted. Per agreement between Professor Gray and the Caltech Archives, dated April 2017, portions of the manuscript are closed for ten years. Closed portions are clearly marked in the transcript. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Administrative information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 2017. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist and Head of Special Collections. Preferred citation Gray, Harry B. Interview by Shirley K. Cohen and Heidi Aspaturian. Pasadena, California, September 2000 to March 2001 and January to May 2016. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)395-4073 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2017 California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEWS WITH HARRY BARKUS GRAY 2000 – 2001 BY SHIRLEY K. COHEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2016 BY HEIDI ASPATURIAN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Copyright © 2017 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Gray-ii Harry B. Gray, 1997 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Gray-iii NOTE TO READERS Per agreement between Professor Gray and the Caltech Archives dated April 23, 2017, portions of this interview are closed for ten years, to April 1, 2027. Closed portions are clearly marked in the transcript. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Gray-iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH HARRY BARKUS GRAY 2000 - 2001 Session 1 1-12 Family history and roots in Kentucky tobacco-farming country; scientific inclinations within family. Childhood and early education in Bowling Green, Kentucky: “first boy in sixth grade” to ask a girl out; brief flirtation with putting popularity above academics before consistently graduating first in class; starts first job as delivery boy for local newspaper at age ten and works way up to accountant and circulation manager by high school. Attends Western Kentucky State College on a scholarships; meets and marries fellow student, Shirley Ernst [now Gray]; undergraduate training and first exposure to research in “fabulous chemistry department” with professors W. Sumpter, G. Dooley, and C.P. McNally; recalls basically teaching high school chemistry course to fellow students. Reflects on character-building impact of starting a job and learning self-reliance at a young age. Recalls how beloved grandmother’s death from cancer influenced decision to study chemistry and how father’s support for civil rights in the 1950s stirred up controversy that may have contributed to his early death from a heart attack. Session 2 13-25 Attends graduate school at Northwestern University; PhD work in new field of platinum chemistry with advisors F. Basolo and R. Pearson; thesis research later illuminates mechanisms of anticancer drug cisplatin. Carries out inorganic chemistry work on color compounds, develops interest in bourgeoning area of crystal field theory, and receives NSF Fellowship to do postdoctoral work with C. Ballhausen at University of Copenhagen. Concludes that L. Pauling’s valence bond theory has significant limitations and formulates ligand field theory model that incorporates both covalent bonding and R. Mulliken’s orbital field theory. Model successfully explains key properties of inorganic compounds. Ballhausen’s initial resistance to accepting ligand field theory, eventual endorsement, and publication of “Ballhausen–Gray model.” Contrasts Ballhausen’s and Pauling’s attitude toward their own research. Early work applying ligand field theory to study of covalent complexes. Enjoys stimulating environment at Copenhagen. Accepts job offer from Louisiana State University but is then recruited to Columbia University by M. Karplus. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gray_H Gray-v Session 3 26-37 Promotion from instructor to assistant professor on first day at Columbia in 1961. Early teaching experiences. Begins long-term association with publisher W. A. Benjamin; publishes Electrons and Chemical Bonding and subsequent volume, Basic Principles of Chemistry, coauthored with G. Haight. J. Roberts’ scathingly constructive critique of Electrons draft manuscript marks first contact with Caltech; after extensive rewrite book sells “like hotcakes.” Co-writes Molecular Orbital Theory with Balhausen, followed by Ligand Substitution Processes with C. Langford, setting forth interchange–mechanism model for inorganic chemical reactions. Publishes Chemical Principles in 1970 with Haight and Caltech’s R. Dickinson. Research on ligand field theory, inorganic synthesis, and sulfur compounds at Columbia with postdoc E. Billig and grad students N. Beach, P.T. Manoharan, and R. Williams. Subsequent careers of grad students R. Eisenberg, E. Steifel, Z. Dori, and Manoharan. Visit in 1963 to University of Chicago, meeting there with chemical physicist J. Halpern. Accepts job offer from Chicago, but Columbia successfully counters with offer of tenure, modest raise, and larger NYC apartment. Session 4 38-57 First visits Caltech

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