Kenneth Pitzer

Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (January 6, 1914 to December 26, 1997) was an American physical and theoretical chemist, educator, and university president born in Pomona, California, who studied under Wendell Latimer and later taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Rice University, and Stanford. His research spanned thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, molecular structure, and quantum mechanics, and he discovered the rotational energy barriers that restrict rotation around carbon-carbon single bonds in hydrocarbons. He also developed the Pitzer equations, still used to describe how ions behave in water and other solutions, and he served as president of Rice University and later of Stanford.