William Nunn Lipscomb Jr., 91, a Harvard University professor who won the Nobel chemistry prize in 1976 for his work on man-made compounds consisting of boron and hydrogen and the problems of chemical bonding, died Thursday night at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., of pneumonia and complications from a fall, said his son, James Lipscomb.
Two of Lipscomb’s graduate students and a third who spent time at his lab have won Nobels. Yale University professor Thomas Steitz, who shared the 2009 chemistry prize, said Lipscomb was an inspiring teacher who encouraged creative thinking.
Lipscomb taught at the University of Minnesota for about 13 years before moving to Harvard, where he taught until he reached the school’s mandatory retirement age of 70. The Associated Press
