Southern California was an important nexus in the emerging US physical organic network during 1925-1950. Following Howard Lucas and William Young, Jack Roberts at Caltech and Saul Winstein (1912-1969) at UCLA made the area a major locus for mechanistic studies. Winstein's essential role in this development has faded from view; this talk recounts several of his major experimental and theoretical advances that contributed to US preeminence in physical organic chemistry.  The Winstein group lead in studying allylic rearrangements; neighboring group effects; ion pair chemistry; and homoconjugation and homoaromaticity, aided by Winstein's commitment to MO as opposed to resonance theory for understanding organic structure and mechanism. Winstein's widely admired experimental studies and theoretical innovations occasionally upset prevailing wisdom. Sometimes they brought him into conflict with a founder of physical organic chemistry, C. K. Ingold. These clashes reflected tensions over the US supplanting the UK as the leader in organic mechanism studies.

Saul Winstein and the foundation of physical organic chemistry at UCLA

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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