Henry Eyring

Henry Eyring (born February 20, 1901 in Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua – December 26, 1981 in Salt Lake City, Utah) was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. A prolific writer, he authored more than 600 scientific articles, ten scientific books, and a few books on the subject of science and religion. He received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1980 and the N... more

Henry Eyring (born February 20, 1901 in Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua – December 26, 1981 in Salt Lake City, Utah) was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. A prolific writer, he authored more than 600 scientific articles, ten scientific books, and a few books on the subject of science and religion. He received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1980 and the National Medal of Science in 1966 for developing the Absolute Rate Theory or Transition state theory of chemical reactions, one of the most important developments of 20th-century chemistry. Several other chemists later received the Nobel prize for work based on it, and his failure to receive the Nobel prize was a matter of surprise to many. He was also elected president of the American Chemical Society in 1963 and the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1965. Eyring was reared on a cattle ranch in Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua, for the... less