Nevil Sidgwick

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick FRS[1] (8 May 1873 – 15 March 1952) was an English theoretical chemist who made significant contributions to the theory of valency and chemical bonding.[2][3]

Nevil Sidgwick
Born	8 May 1873 Oxford, England
Died	15 March 1952 (1952-03-16) (aged 78) Oxford, England
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford, University of Tübingen
Known for	valency
Awards	Royal Medal (1937) Longstaff Prize (1945) Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of Oxford
Doctoral advisor	Hans von Pechmann (University of Tübingen)

After a few years at Rugby School, Sidgwick pursued undergraduate studies at Christ Church, Oxford, and a doctorate at the University of Tübingen.[4] He received the MA from Lincoln College, Oxford, in October 1901,[5] and spent almost his entire career in the city of his birth, becoming a Fellow of the college in 1901, and Professor of Chemistry from 1935 to 1945.[6]

Sidgwick became absorbed by the study of atomic structure and its importance in chemical bonding. He explained the bonding in coordination compounds (complexes), with a convincing account of the significance of the dative bond. Together with his students he demonstrated the existence and wide-ranging importance of the hydrogen bond.

In 1927, he proposed the inert pair effect which describes the stability of heavier p-block atoms in an oxidation state two less than the maximum. In 1940 his Bakerian lecture with Herbert Marcus Powell correlated molecular geometry with the number of valence electrons on a central atom.[7] These ideas were later developed into the VSEPR theory by Gillespie and Nyholm.

His works include The Organic Chemistry of Nitrogen (1910), The Electronic Theory of Valency (1927), Some Physical Properties of the Covalent Link in Chemistry (1933), and the definitive The Chemical Elements and their Compounds (1950).

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1922[1] and died in Oxford on 15 March 1952.

Appointments Include:
Baker Lecturer at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA]] (1931)
President of the Faraday Society (1932-1934)
Vice President of the Royal Society (1935-1937)
President of the Chemical Society (1935-1937)

The Sidgwick Laboratory in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory for organic chemistry and Sidgwick Close in front of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford were named after him.[8]