Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Donald J. Cram papers, 1937-2002
570  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Overview
 
Table of contents What's This?
Description
Donald J. Cram, a Nobel Prize-winning organic chemist, came to UCLA in August of 1947 where he taught and conducted research for over four decades. The field of host-guest complexation chemistry was in large part developed by Cram and his research group at UCLA. Through this work, the interactions between enzymes and their substrates in a living cell were mimicked using synthetic molecules. The collection includes correspondence, lectures, publications, UCLA theses and dissertations, scrapbooks, patent notebooks, honorary medals, molecular models, photographs, his signature bow-tie and Nobel Prize.
Background
Donald J. Cram was born April 22, 1919 in Chester, Vermont. During the summers of 1938 to 1941, Cram worked for the National Biscuit Company in New York City, at first as a salesman and then as a laboratory technician involved in the analysis of cheeses for moisture and fat content. According to Cram's Nobel autobiography, "Chemical research became my god, and the conducting of it, my act of prayer, from 1938 to the present." This spiritual journey and Cram's academic mastery of Organic Chemistry began with a B.S. from Rollins College in 1941, an M.S. from the University of Nebraska in 1942 and finally a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1947. Cram came to UCLA in August of 1947 where he taught and conducted research for over four decades. A stereochemist in molecular organic chemistry, in 1952 Cram developed the rule of asymmetric induction, discovered phenonium ions, and in large part developed the field of host-guest complexation chemistry with his research group at UCLA. Through this work the interactions between enzymes and their substrates in a living cell were mimicked using synthetic molecules. The creation of this field of host-guest chemistry led to his Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987 and the President's National Medal of Science in 1993. Donald J. Cram died in Palm Desert, California on June 17, 2001.
Extent
18.2 linear ft. (16 cartons, 3 flat boxes, 2 document boxes and 1 half document box)
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Availability
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.