Skip to content
Nobel Jews
Portrait of Herbert C. Brown
Photo: User:Wikidwa, File:1997 Chiral Conference.pdf File:1997 Chiral Conference.png · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Chemistry · 1979

Herbert C. Brown

A Depression-era student from a struggling immigrant family, he made boron into a standard tool chemists use to build medicines.

The Nobel citation: “for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis”
Born
May 22, 1912, London, United Kingdom
Died
December 19, 2004, Lafayette, IN, USA
Shared with
Georg Wittig
Affiliation at the time
Purdue University, USA

Chemistry prize

1979

Shared with 1 other laureate.

Age that year

67years

Born in 1912.

Sources cited

15

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • His initials, H, C and B, are the symbols for hydrogen, carbon and boron, the elements in the reaction that made his name. He joked that his parents were far-seeing.
  • His boron career began with a graduation gift from his girlfriend Sarah: a book on boron hydrides, likely picked because at $2.06 it was the cheapest chemistry book in the store.
  • His key discovery began with an oddity: one test compound used 2.37 units of a reagent, a near twin used 2.00. The reason was hydroboration.
  • Two chemists who trained in his Purdue lab, Akira Suzuki and Ei-ichi Negishi, were two of the three winners of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
  • In 1935 Sarah wrote in his junior college yearbook that he would be a Nobel laureate. He won the prize 44 years later.

The breakthrough

Boron reagents for building molecules: borohydrides and hydroboration

Chemists who make medicines and other useful substances need reliable ways to change one part of a molecule without wrecking the rest. Brown gave them a family of such tools built from boron. First, during World War II, he and his mentor Hermann Schlesinger found sodium borohydride, and a cheap way to make it. This white powder gently adds hydrogen to certain groups in a molecule, and it became the standard reagent for that job. At Purdue, Brown then tuned a whole range of related compounds, from very mild to very strong, so a chemist could pick exactly the right one. In 1956 came the discovery he is best known for. A coworker, B. C. Subba Rao, noticed that one test compound used up more reagent than it should have. The reason was a new reaction, hydroboration: a boron-hydrogen bond adds straight across a carbon-carbon double bond, under mild conditions and with the boron going to a predictable spot. The resulting organoboranes are like temporary adapters plugged into a molecule. Once the boron is in place, it can be swapped for an alcohol group, an amine, a halogen or new carbon atoms, with the shape of the molecule kept intact. In 1964 his group made a version using boron attached to pinene, a cheap compound from pine trees, which builds mostly one of the two mirror-image forms of a product.[3],[4],[5],[6]

“I hope that one result of this lecture will be to inspire young chemists to search for such new continents.”
Herbert C. Brown, Closing words of his Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1979, after comparing organoboron chemistry to a newly discovered continent.[3]

What it meant for humanity

Brown's work changed the everyday toolkit of chemists who make medicines, farm chemicals and other products. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said sodium borohydride had become chemists' first choice for turning carbonyl groups into alcohols, and judged his organoboranes the most versatile reagents organic chemistry had yet produced. A method he found in wartime became the basis of the industrial process for making sodium borohydride. During the war the compound was used to make hydrogen for weather balloons, and it is used today in some fuel cells. His chemistry also made possible a larger advance that he did not make himself. Akira Suzuki read Brown's book Hydroboration in 1962, trained in his lab from 1963 to 1965, and later used the stable boron compounds that hydroboration produces to develop, with Norio Miyaura, the Suzuki coupling, a way of joining carbon atoms with a palladium catalyst. A 2016 analysis of drug-discovery chemistry found it was the second most frequently used reaction, after amide bond formation. It is also used to make thousands of tons of a crop fungicide. Brown's group also used boron chemistry to make pure insect pheromones, which he saw as a promising way to control pests. He published nearly 1,300 scientific papers and mentored chemists from around the world, including Subba Rao from India and Suzuki and Negishi from Japan. With his wife Sarah he endowed an American Chemical Society award, a professorship and a research center for boron chemistry.

  • The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said sodium borohydride had become chemists' first choice for reducing carbonyl compounds, and judged his organoboranes the most versatile reagents organic chemistry had yet produced.[4],[5]
  • A method he found in wartime became the basis of the industrial manufacture of sodium borohydride. The compound supplied hydrogen for weather balloons in World War II and is used today in some fuel cells.[3],[7]
  • His former postdoc Akira Suzuki built on the stability of organoboron compounds to develop the Suzuki coupling, which a 2016 study found was the second most used reaction in drug-discovery chemistry.[6],[9],[11]
  • Boron-based cross-coupling is used to make thousands of tons of a fungicide that protects crops, the Nobel committee noted in 2010.[10]
  • Oregon State University's Pauling archive notes that boron reagents cut the time needed to make test compounds for new drugs, and are used in making medicines such as Prozac and Lipitor.[15]

Impact in numbers

Brown's gift was a set of dependable tools. Sodium borohydride, hydroboration and the chiral boron reagents from his lab let chemists make precise changes to molecules under mild conditions, and they have been standard equipment in teaching and industry for decades. Their biggest effects came through other people's work. His former postdoc Akira Suzuki built on boron compounds to create the cross-coupling reaction now among the most used in drug discovery, and in making crop protection chemicals. Because every modern medicine or pesticide depends on dozens of reactions and many inventors, turning this into a count of lives saved or dollars earned would be guesswork, so we attach no number. What can be said plainly: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences judged his organoboranes the most versatile reagents organic chemistry had yet produced, and nearly 1,300 papers and many trained chemists carried that work around the world.

Fundamental scienceHealthTechnologyFood

No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.

The double edge

No serious harms from Brown's work are documented. Two honest caveats apply. First, his breakthrough reagent came out of military research: in World War II his lab worked for the US National Defense Research Committee on a volatile uranium compound. Brown later said the group understood this was for the atomic bomb effort, although the government did not say so. The compound was dropped once uranium hexafluoride proved workable, so it played no known part in the bomb. The group then worked for the Army Signal Corps on making hydrogen in the field. Second, Brown spent years in a bitter scientific dispute over the structure of a type of charged carbon molecule called the norbornyl cation. At one point about half his research group worked on it. He argued against the bridged, nonclassical structure that many chemists favored, and in 2013 an X-ray crystal structure confirmed the bridged form. His former student Negishi reads his position as a caution against overusing that idea rather than a simple error. This was a dispute about ideas, not a harm to people.

  • Minor

    Wartime research linked to the atomic bomb effort

    From 1940 his lab searched for a volatile uranium compound for the National Defense Research Committee. Brown later recalled that they knew it was wanted for the atomic bomb program. They made uranium borohydride, which was dropped once the handling of uranium hexafluoride was solved. The Army Signal Corps then funded work on sodium borohydride to make hydrogen in the field. No harm from this work is documented.[3],[8]

  • Minor

    On the losing side of a long carbocation feud

    Brown questioned the nonclassical, bridged structure of the norbornyl cation for years, a debate a 2013 Science paper called vituperative. That paper's crystal structure confirmed the bridged form. Negishi argues Brown was mainly warning against applying the idea too widely.[6],[12]

Against the odds

Brown's parents were born in Zhitomir, a city in the Russian Empire where Jews made up about a third of the population in 1891. In 1905, three years before they left for London, a pogrom there killed about twenty Jews. They were part of a mass migration of Eastern European Jews, and in 1914 the family moved on to Chicago. America was safer, but it was not free of prejudice: in the 1920s and 1930s Jews faced discrimination in professional jobs, and many leading northeastern universities set quotas on Jewish students. Brown's own obstacles were mostly about money. His father, a trained cabinet maker, ran a small hardware store in a largely Black neighborhood of Chicago. He died in 1926, and the 14-year-old Brown left high school to work in the store. He returned only when his mother took over. He finished school just as the Depression began, could not find a steady job, and started at a city junior college that then closed for lack of funds. He took night classes while working as a part-time shoe clerk, studied in a small lab at a former professor's home, and reached the University of Chicago on a half scholarship. After his PhD in 1938 he could not find an industrial job. He later said only that he failed to persuade the companies that interviewed him, and no source we found blames prejudice. He took a postdoctoral post instead, and later left Chicago when told he had no future there.

  • 1905

    Persecution

    In his parents' home city of Zhitomir, a pogrom in 1905 killed about twenty Jews and wounded many more. His parents moved to London in 1908 as part of the great Jewish emigration from the Russian Empire.[2],[13]

  • 1926

    Poverty

    When his father died of an infection in 1926, the teenage Brown left high school to work in the family hardware store. He went back to school in 1929 when his mother took over the store.[2],[7]

  • 1933

    Poverty

    In the Depression he could find no permanent job. His junior college closed for lack of funds in 1933, and he took night classes while working as a part-time shoe clerk.[2],[6]

  • —

    Discrimination

    In the 1920s and 1930s, American Jews faced discrimination in professional jobs, and from 1922 many leading northeastern universities limited Jewish admissions. No source we found says Brown himself was turned away for being Jewish.[14]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishRelationship to Jewish identity not documented

Brown was born in London to Charles Brovarnik and Pearl Gorinstein, both born in Zhitomir in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. In his Nobel autobiography he wrote that they came to London in 1908 as part of the vast Jewish immigration of the time. His National Academy of Sciences memoir, written by his former student Ei-ichi Negishi, also describes his parents as Jewish. The family moved to Chicago in 1914, where the grandfather's name had been changed to Brown. In 1986 he received a commemorative medal from the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences. We found no source describing his personal religious practice or how he related to Jewish identity as an adult.[2],[6],[8],[15]

Key dates

  1. May 22, 1912

    Born in London to Charles Brovarnik and Pearl Gorinstein, Jewish immigrants from Zhitomir in Ukraine.[1],[2]

  2. June 1914

    The family moves to Chicago to join his father's relatives and takes the name Brown.[2]

  3. 1926

    His father dies, and he leaves high school to work in the family hardware store.[2],[7]

  4. 1935

    Graduates with Wright Junior College's first class and enters the University of Chicago on a half scholarship.[2]

  5. 1936

    Earns a B.S. after finishing two years of courses in three quarters; begins PhD work on boron hydrides with H. I. Schlesinger.[2],[3]

  6. 1938

    Receives his PhD from the University of Chicago; unable to find an industrial job, he takes a postdoctoral post with M. S. Kharasch.[2],[7]

  7. 1940

    Begins wartime research with Schlesinger that yields a practical route to diborane and the discovery of sodium borohydride as a reducing agent.[3],[8]

  8. 1943

    Becomes an assistant professor at Wayne University in Detroit.[6],[7]

  9. 1947

    Joins Purdue University as professor of inorganic chemistry.[2],[6]

  10. 1956

    With B. C. Subba Rao, discovers hydroboration, the reaction behind his Nobel Prize.[3],[6]

  11. 1964

    With N. R. Ayyangar and G. Zweifel, reports asymmetric hydroboration using a reagent made from pinene.[6]

  12. 1969

    Receives the US National Medal of Science.[2],[6]

  13. 1979

    Shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Georg Wittig for turning boron and phosphorus compounds into important reagents.[1],[4]

  14. December 19, 2004

    Dies of a heart attack in Lafayette, Indiana, aged 92.[1],[6],[7]

Sources

  1. 1.Herbert C. Brown - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.Herbert C. Brown - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel 1979), 1980
  3. 3.From Little Acorns to Tall Oaks: From Boranes through Organoboranes (Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1979) · NobelPrize.org, 1979
  4. 4.Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1979 · NobelPrize.org (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), 1979
  5. 5.Award ceremony speech, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1979 (presentation by Professor Bengt Lindberg) · NobelPrize.org, 1979
  6. 6.Herbert Charles Brown 1912-2004: A Biographical Memoir (Ei-ichi Negishi) · National Academy of Sciences, 2008
  7. 7.Herbert C. Brown Dead at Age 92 (Mitch Jacoby) · Chemical & Engineering News (American Chemical Society), 2005
  8. 8.Oral history interview with Herbert C. Brown (interviewed by James J. Bohning, 11 November 1994) · Science History Institute, 1994
  9. 9.Akira Suzuki - Biographical · NobelPrize.org, 2010
  10. 10.Popular information: Great art in a test tube (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010) · NobelPrize.org (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), 2010
  11. 11.Analysis of Past and Present Synthetic Methodologies on Medicinal Chemistry: Where Have All the New Reactions Gone? (Brown DG, Boström J) · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 59(10):4443-4458 (via PubMed), 2016
  12. 12.Crystal structure determination of the nonclassical 2-norbornyl cation (Scholz F et al.) · Science 341(6141):62-64 (via PubMed), 2013
  13. 13.Zhitomir (Jitomir) · Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), 1906
  14. 14.Anti-Semitism in the 1920s and 1930s · Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
  15. 15.Herbert C. Brown, 1912-2004 · The Pauling Blog (Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center), 2012

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 9 corrections made. How we check

Suggest a correction