Fred McLafferty

Fred W. McLafferty
Born	(1923-05-11)May 11, 1923 Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
Died	December 26, 2021(2021-12-26) (aged 98) Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Nebraska (BS, 1943 MS, 1947) Cornell University (PhD, 1950) University of Iowa (PostDoc)
Known for	Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry Electron-capture dissociation McLafferty rearrangement
Awards	ACS Award in Chemical Instrumentation (1971) Fisher Award (1981) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1982) William H. Nichols Medal (1984) Oesper Award (1985) Sir J.J. Thomson Gold Medal (1985) Field and Franklin Award (1989) ASMS Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry Award (2003) Lavoisier Medal (2004)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Chemist
Institutions	Purdue University Cornell University
Doctoral students	I. Jonathan Amster[2] Neil Kelleher[3]

External videos
“A Conversation with Fred W. McLafferty”, Cornell University, 2006, 90 minute video

Fred Warren McLafferty (May 11, 1923 − December 26, 2021) was an American chemist known for his work in mass spectrometry. He is best known for the McLafferty rearrangement reaction that was observed with mass spectrometry.^[4] With Roland Gohlke, he pioneered the technique of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.^[5][6] He is also known for electron-capture dissociation, a method of fragmenting gas-phase ions.^[7]

Early life and education

Fred McLafferty was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1923, but attended grade school in Omaha, Nebraska, graduating from Omaha North High School in 1940.^[8] The urgent requirements of World War II accelerated his undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska; he obtained his B.S. degree in 1943 and thereafter entered the US armed forces. He served in western Europe during the invasion of Germany and was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, a Purple Heart, Five Bronze Star Medals and a Presidential Unit Citation.^[9]

He returned to the University of Nebraska in late 1945 and completed his M.S. degree in 1947. He went on to work under William Miller at Cornell University where he earned his Ph.D. in 1950. He went on to a postdoctoral researcher position at the University of Iowa with R.L. Shriner.^[9]

Dow Chemical

He took a position at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan in 1950 and was in charge of mass spectrometry and gas chromatography from 1950 to 1956. In 1953-1956, he started collecting reference mass spectra whenever the instruments were not in use.^[10]

In 1956, he became the Director of Dow's Eastern Research Lab in Framingham, Massachusetts. During this time, he developed the first GC/MS instruments^[6] and analyzed the company's reference collection of spectra he himself founded.^[10] This allowed him to work out techniques for determining the structure of organic molecules by mass spectrometry, most notably in the discovery of what is now known as the McLafferty rearrangement.^[11]

Academic career

From 1964 to 1968, he was Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University.^[12] In 1968, he returned to his alma mater, Cornell University, to become the Peter J. W. Debye Professor of Chemistry.^[12] He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1982.^[13] While at Cornell, McLafferty assembled one of the first comprehensive databases of mass spectra^[14] and pioneered artificial intelligence techniques to interpret GC/MS results.^[15] His PBM^[16] STIRS program has widespread use to save hours of time-consuming work otherwise required to manually analyze GC/MS results.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life and death

McLafferty died in Ithaca, New York, on December 26, 2021, at the age of 98.^[17]

Honors and awards

• 1971 ACS Award in Chemical Instrumentation^[18]
• 1981 ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry^[19]
• 1984 William H. Nichols Medal^[20]
• 1985 Oesper Award^[21]
• 1985 J. J. Thomson Gold Medal by International Mass Spectrometry Society^{[citation needed]}
• 1987 Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award ^{[citation needed]}
• 1989 Field and Franklin Award for Mass Spectrometry ^[22]
• 1989 University of Naples Gold Medal ^{[citation needed]}
• 1992 Robert Boyle Gold Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry ^{[citation needed]}
• 1996 Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists^[23]
• 1997 Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research.^[24]
• 1999 J. Heyrovsky Medal by the Czech Academy of Sciences ^{[citation needed]}
• 2000 G. Natta Gold Medal by Italian Chemical Society ^{[citation needed]}
• 2001 Torbern Bergman Medal by the Swedish Chemical Society ^{[citation needed]}
• 2003 John B. Fenn Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS)
• 2004 Lavoisier Medal by the French Chemical Society ^{[citation needed]}
• 2006 Pehr Edman Award by the International Association for Protein Structure^{[citation needed]}
• 2015 Nakanishi Prize from the American Chemical Society^[25]
• 2019 American Chemical Society designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark ^[26] in Midland, MI for the demonstration of the first operating GC-MS by Fred McLafferty and Roland Gohlke.

References

1. "Seven Cornellians receive prestigious national and international honors". Cornell Chronicle. December 3, 2004. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
2. "Advisory Board". aamsdg.emory.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
3. "Neil Kelleher – Kelleher Research Group". Archived from the original on 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
4. F. W. McLafferty (1959). "Mass Spectrometric Analysis. Molecular Rearrangements". Analytical Chemistry. 31 (1): 82–87. doi:10.1021/ac60145a015.
5. Jones, Mark. "Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 19 Nov 2019.
6. Gohlke, Roland S.; McLafferty, Fred W. (1993). "Early gas chromatography/mass spectrometry". Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 4 (5): 367–371. Bibcode:1993JASMS...4..367G. doi:10.1016/1044-0305(93)85001-E. PMID 24234933.
7. Zubarev, R. A.; Kelleher, N. L.; McLafferty, F. W. (1998). "Electron Capture Dissociation of Multiply Charged Protein Cations - a Nonergodic Process". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120 (13): 3265–3266. doi:10.1021/ja973478k.
8. Gross ML (2004). "Focus in honor of Fred McLafferty, 2003 Distinguished Contribution awardee, for the discovery of the "McLafferty Rearrangement"". J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 15 (7): 951–5. Bibcode:2004JASMS..15..951G. doi:10.1016/j.jasms.2004.05.009. PMID 15234352.
9. Grayson, Michael A. (23 January 2007). Fred W. McLafferty, Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Michael A. Grayson at Cornell University Ithaca, New York on 22 and 23 January 2007 (PDF). Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation.
10. McLafferty, Fred W. (2011-07-19). "A Century of Progress in Molecular Mass Spectrometry". Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry. 4 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1146/annurev-anchem-061010-114018. ISSN 1936-1327.
11. McLafferty, F.W. (1959). "Mass Spectrometric Analysis. Molecular Rearrangements". Anal. Chem. 31 (1): 82–87. doi:10.1021/ac60145a015.
12. "Fred W. McLafferty Obituary". www.tributearchive.com. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
13. "Fred W. McLafferty". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
14. McLafferty, F.W. (2009). Wiley Registry of Mass Spectral Data, 9th Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. pp. 662, 000. ISBN 978-0-470-52035-2. Archived from the original on 2012-10-12. Retrieved 2011-06-24.
15. Tureček, František; McLafferty, Fred W. (1993). Interpretation of mass spectra. Sausalito, Calif: University Science Books. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-935702-25-5.
16. McLafferty, F. W.; Hertel, R. H.; Villwock, R. D. (1974). "Probability based matching of mass spectra. Rapid identification of specific compounds in mixtures". Organic Mass Spectrometry. 9 (7): 690–702. doi:10.1002/oms.1210090710.
17. "Fred W. McLafferty". Echovita. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
18. "Chemical Instrumentation". ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. American Chemical Society. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
19. "ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
20. "NICHOLS MEDALISTS". Retrieved 19 August 2021.
21. "Previous Recipients of the Oesper Award". UC College of Arts and Sciences. University of Cincinnati. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
22. "Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
23. "Chemical Pioneer Award". American Institute of Chemists. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
24. "Bijvoet Medal". Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research. Archived from the original on 2017-09-12. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
25. "Nakanishi Prize". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
26. "Analytical innovation at Dow Chemical honored as a National Historic Chemical Landmark". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2019-06-07.

Bibliography

• Venkataraghavan, Rengachari; McLafferty, Fred W. (1982). Mass spectral correlations. Columbus, OH: American Chemical Society. ISBN 978-0-8412-0702-8.
• Heller, Stephen R.; McLafferty, Fred W.; Stauffer, Douglas B.; Stenhagen, Einar (1989). The Wiley/NBS registry of mass spectral data. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-62886-6.
• Stauffer, Douglas B.; McLafferty, Fred W. (1991). The important peak index of the registry of mass spectral data. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-55270-3.
• Tureček, František; McLafferty, Fred W. (1993). Interpretation of mass spectra. Sausalito, Calif: University Science Books. ISBN 978-0-935702-25-5.

External links

• A Conversation with Fred W. McLafferty 2006, 90 minute video, for Cornell University.
• Center for Oral History. "Fred W. McLafferty". Science History Institute.
• Grayson, Michael A. (23 January 2007). Fred W. McLafferty, Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Michael A. Grayson at Cornell University Ithaca, New York on 22 and 23 January 2007 (PDF). Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation.