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Marilyn Olmstead

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American chemist (1943–2020)

Marilyn Olmstead was an American chemist, an expert in small molecule crystallography and an international leader in the crystallographic study of fullerenes, or "Buckyballs." She held the position of professor emerita of chemistry at the University of California Davis.

She was elected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2014 and the American Crystallographic Association in 2017.

Early life

Marilyn Olmstead was born on December 8, 1943, in Glendale, California. and graduated from Burbank High School in 1961.

Higher education

Olmstead earned a B.A. in chemistry from Reed College in 1965. She attended University of Wisconsin-Madison for her graduate studies, supported by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Wisconsin-Madison in 1969, the only woman in her graduating class of 40 students.

Career and discoveries

Olmstead started at the Department of Chemistry of the University of California, Davis in 1969 as lecturer in chemistry (1969-1975) She wa subsequently appointed postdoctoral fellow (1971–1986), staff research associate (X-ray crystallography) (1986–1997), and specialist (1997–2003). By 2000, she was the in charge of a crystallographic laboratory that was one of the most productive in the world; she herself had the highest number of publications and cites of anyone in the chemistry department. Eventually, in 2003, when Marilyn was 60 years old, she was appointed to the faculty as full professor. She became a faculty member at the rank of professor Step 2 in 2003, and advanced through the system to professor, Step 6 in 2015. She became emerita in 2015.

Olmstead was a specialist in small-molecule crystallography. A focus of her research after 1990 was the structural characterization by X-ray crystallography of fullerenes, both empty and filled (endohedrals) cages, in collaboration with Alan Balch. She contributed to many of the papers that described previously undetected higher fullerenes (larger than C70) (until 2018 when this record was broken) and endohedral fullerenes (those that contain encaged metals and small clusters). She pushed boundaries of crystallography, employing synchrotron radiation and ultra-low temperature data collection. Complementing her work on fullerenes and carbon nonocapsules, she also collaborated with petroleum scientists to provide definitive structural characterization of a number of the large family of diamondoid hydrocarbons found in oil wells. Structure of tetramantane, a new type of σ-helical structure based on a diamondoid (nanodiamond) framework, and the structure of the first fullerene that did not obey the Isolated pentagon rule. She was also responsible for the structural characterization of the first boron-centered radical.

Olmstead served as an original co-editor of the journal Acta Crystallographica Section E from 2001 to 2011. She served in the elected positions of chair of the General Interest Group, and chair of the Continuing Education Committee in the American Crystallographic Association. She was a member of the Journal’s Commission of the International Union of Crystallography. She was an elected member of the U.S. National Committee on Crystallography, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2014 Olmstead was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. In 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the American Crystallographic Association.

Death

Marilyn Olmstead was killed on September 30, 2020, in a collision while cycling on a rural road north of Davis, California.

References

  1. ^ "Marilyn Olmstead: My Life and Career in Chemistry | The Capitol Chemist". Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  2. "Obituary: Marilyn Olmstead". cen.acs.org. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  3. ^ "Remembering Professor Marilyn Olmstead". UC Davis Chemistry. 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  4. ^ "2014 ACS Fellows". cen.acs.org. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  5. ^ "Three Alumni Named 2014 ACS Fellows". Department of Chemistry. 2014-07-22. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  6. ^ "Women From Higher Education Named Fellows of American Chemical Society". Women In Academia Report. 2014-08-06. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  7. ^ "Fellows of the American Crystallographic Association". www.amercrystalassn.org. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  8. Mercado, Brandon Q.; Jiang, An; Yang, Hua; Wang, Zhimin; Jin, Hongxiao; Liu, Ziyang; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Balch, Alan L. (2009). "Isolation and Structural Characterization of the Molecular Nanocapsule Sm2@D3d(822)-C104". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 48 (48): 9114–9116. doi:10.1002/anie.200904662. ISSN 1521-3773.
  9. Pan, Changwang; Bao, Lipiao; Yu, Xianyong; Fang, Hongyun; Xie, Yunpeng; Akasaka, Takeshi; Lu, Xing (2018-02-27). "Facile Access to Y2C2n (2n = 92–130) and Crystallographic Characterization of Y2C2@C1(1660)-C108: A Giant Nanocapsule with a Linear Carbide Cluster". ACS Nano. 12 (2): 2065–2069. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b00384. ISSN 1936-0851. PMID 29400943.
  10. Mercado, Brandon Q.; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Beavers, Christine M.; Easterling, Michael L.; Stevenson, Steven; Mackey, Mary A.; Coumbe, Curtis E.; Phillips, Joshua D.; Phillips, J. Paige; Poblet, Josep M.; Balch, Alan L. (2009-12-15). "A seven atom cluster in a carbon cage, the crystallographically determined structure of Sc4(μ3-O)3@Ih-C80". Chemical Communications. 46 (2): 279–281. doi:10.1039/B918731F. ISSN 1364-548X.
  11. Zhang, Yang; Ghiassi, Kamran B.; Deng, Qingming; Samoylova, Nataliya A.; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Balch, Alan L.; Popov, Alexey A. (2015). "Synthesis and Structure of LaSc2N@Cs(hept)-C80 with One Heptagon and Thirteen Pentagons". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 54 (2): 495–499. doi:10.1002/anie.201409094. ISSN 1521-3773. PMID 25413484.
  12. Dahl, Jeremy E. P.; Moldowan, J. Michael; Peakman, Torren M.; Clardy, Jon C.; Lobkovsky, Emil; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; May, Paul W.; Davis, Tim J.; Steeds, John W.; Peters, Ken E.; Pepper, Andy (2003). "Isolation and Structural Proof of the Large Diamond Molecule, Cyclohexamantane (C26H30)". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 42 (18): 2040–2044. doi:10.1002/anie.200250794. ISSN 1521-3773.
  13. Stevenson, S.; Rice, G.; Glass, T.; Harich, K.; Cromer, F.; Jordan, M. R.; Craft, J.; Hadju, E.; Bible, R.; Olmstead, M. M.; Maitra, K. (1999). "Small-bandgap endohedral metallofullerenes in high yield and purity". Nature. 401 (6748): 55–57. doi:10.1038/43415. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4340875.
  14. Schreiner, Peter R.; Fokin, Andrey A.; Reisenauer, Hans Peter; Tkachenko, Boryslav A.; Vass, Elemér; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Bläser, Dieter; Boese, Roland; Dahl, Jeremy E. P.; Carlson, Robert M. K. (2009-08-19). "[123]Tetramantane: Parent of a New Family of σ-Helicenes". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 131 (32): 11292–11293. doi:10.1021/ja904527g. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 19722641.
  15. Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Lee, Hon Man; Duchamp, James C.; Stevenson, Steven; Marciu, Daniela; Dorn, Harry C.; Balch, Alan L. (2003). "Sc3N@C68: Folded Pentalene Coordination in an Endohedral Fullerene that Does Not Obey the Isolated Pentagon Rule". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 42 (8): 900–903. doi:10.1002/anie.200390237. ISSN 1521-3773. PMID 12596171.
  16. Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Power, Philip P. (1986-07-01). "First structural characterization of a boron-centered radical: x-ray crystal structure of [Li(12-crown-4)2]+ [BMes3]-.bul". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 108 (14): 4235–4236. doi:10.1021/ja00274a071. ISSN 0002-7863.
  17. "Retired UCD chem professor killed while cycling on rural road". Davis Enterprise. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
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