Donald E. Pearson

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Donald Emanuel Pearson," PhD "Doc" was an American chemist and scientist. He was born on 21 June 1914 in Madison, Wisconsin, and died on 14 April 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Author of over 200 scientific papers and 2 reference texts: Survey of Organic Syntheses Vols. I and II(ISBN 047111670X). He also held the position of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University

Pearson was holder of numerous US patents involving novel compounds and chemical mechanisms.^{[citation needed]} Most notably he patented the process of methanol conversion to gasoline using polyphosphoric acid(PPA) as a catalyst.^[1][2][3] This, known as the Pearson process, is currently in use in New Zealand.^{[citation needed]} Along with a post doctoral colleague, Sidhaghatta D. Venkataramu (d), they developed a method of spin-label tagging of compounds so they can be traced in biologic systems as well as in industrial applications.^[4]

[edit] Career

After graduating as salutatorian from Madison High School, Pearson enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he played varsity baseball for 4 years and graduated in 1936 with a Bachelors degree in Chemistry. He turned down an offer to pitch for the Chicago White Sox to pursue his doctoral studies at the University Of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign where Speed Marvel and Roger Adams were his mentors.Doc Pearson became enamoured with research, teaching and "hands on" bench chemistry. He supported his graduate studies by teaching supplemented by all-night poker games at the Chemistry frat house{<Alpha Chi Sigma>^{[citation needed]} and admonished Robert Burns Woodward to pay off his poker debts at the train station before the future Nobel laureate headed to Harvard to begin his new job^{[citation needed]}).

After receiving his PhD, Pearson took a position as an industrial chemist with the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. and was recruited by the National Defense Research Committee(NDRC)/Chemical Warfare Service(CWS)to evaluate chemical weapons(i.e. gases)in Bushnell, FL during World War II. He, however, found the teathered goats/forced troop marches unsavory and developed modeling methodologies instead. With the end of the WWII he accepted a position at Vanderbilt as an Assitant Professor of Chemistry and along with teaching began research developing antimalarial drugs (commissioned by the U.S. Army). Doc had the distinction of being able to totally support his resarch and salary throughout his career by obtaining grants. His laboratory/office on campus was located in Furman Hall with windows which opened onto a baseball diamond (now known as Alumni Lawn where gaduation takes place every May) and often had students literally drop in. Don continued sports which represented a central theme throughout his entire life... playing basketball at Memorial Gym and pitching baseball at the old Sulfur Dell venue in downtown Nashville. Many of his graduate students recognized this passion intuitively and sought to enhance their achademic careers with him on the athletic courts/fields. _

[edit] Scientific papers

• Donald E. Pearson, D. Cowan, J. D. Beckler (1959). "A Study of the Entrainment Method for Making Grignard Reagents". J. Org. Chem. 24 (4): 504-509. DOI:10.1021/jo01086a015. 
• Donald E. Pearson, Robert D. Wysong, Chas. V. Breder (1967). "Ortho bromination of phenols". J. Org. Chem. 32 (7): 2358-2360. 

[edit] References