Description
Kenneth N. Trueblood, a pioneering crystallographer, contributed to research that led to two Nobel Prizes, received awards
for his renowned teaching, and served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UCLA and Dean of the College of Letters and
Science at UCLA. The collection contains his research files, laboratory notebooks, computer programs, lecture notes, speeches,
correspondence, grant applications, annotated publications, and documents related to his involvement with professional crystallography
organizations.
Background
Kenneth N. Trueblood, a pioneering crystallographer known also for his exceptional teaching, was born on April 24, 1920 in
Dobbs Ferry, New York. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1941 and his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology
for research in chromatography and spectrophotometry in 1947. However, inspired by the ground-breaking work of his professor
Linus Pauling, Trueblood went on to work in crystallography. After two years of post-doctoral work at Caltech, he became an
instructor in the Department of Chemistry at UCLA in 1949 and was made an assistant professor in 1950. He became a full professor
in 1960 and was awarded the newly created UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 1961. This same year, he also became President
of the American Crystallographic Association, which he co-founded. He served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UCLA
from 1965-1970 and became Dean of the UCLA College of Letters and Science in 1971. Teaching throughout his time as Chair and
Dean, he stepped down from his position as Dean in 1974 in order to return to teaching full-time. However, he returned to
administrative service as Chair of the Academic Senate from 1983-1984 and chaired the Department of Chemistry once again from
1990-1991.
Extent
34.8 Linear Feet
(31 record storage cartons, 6 document boxes, 1 flat box, and 1 oversize flat box)
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other 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. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.