Organic Chemistry

Major Advances in the Field of Organic Chemistry

was Gilbert Lewis^1 of U.C. Berkeley who described covalent bonding largely as we know it
today (electron-sharing). Nobel laureate Linus Pauling further developed Lewis’ concepts
by proposing resonance while he was at the California Institute of Technology. At about
the same time, Sir Robert Robinson of Oxford University focused primarily on the electrons
of atoms as the engines of molecular change. Sir Christopher Ingold of University College,
London, organized what was known of organic chemical reactions by arranging them in
schemes we now know as mechanisms, in order to better understand the sequence of changes
in a synthesis or reaction.

The field of organic chemistry is probably the most active and important field of chemistry
at the moment, due to its extreme applicability to both biochemistry (especially in the
pharmaceutical industry) and petrochemistry (especially in the energy industry). Organic
chemistry has a relatively recent history, but it will have an enormously important future,
affecting the lives of everyone around the world for many, many years to come.

<< Foundational concepts^2 | History of Organic Chemistry | Atomic Structure >^3 | Alkanes

^4

1 Chapter9.1.1on page 41

2 https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Organic%20Chemistry%2FFoundational%20concepts%20of%20organic%20chemistry
3 Chapter 5 on page 17
4 Chapter 12 on page 55