Michelle Millar was a premier synthetic inorganic chemist. As a postdoc, she characterized the first example of a compound containing a tungsten-tungsten quadruple bond, and the first example of a compound with a square planar carbon atom.  A molecule that she synthesized had the shortest distance ever found between two metal atoms, a record that was broken only after 30 years. As a faculty member, Prof. Millar specialized in the design and synthesis of new transition metal complexes as models for metalloenzymes.  She recognized early on that much of the unusual metal chemistry that takes place inside proteins is possible because the proteins serve as sterically congested ligands, controlling access to the reactive metal centers.  Prof. Millar pioneered the development of sterically encumbered thiolate ligands, and the use of these ligands to prepare metal complexes as models of metalloenzymes, an approach that has been adopted by numerous inorganic chemistry research groups around the world.  She and coworkers prepared and characterized analogs to the oxidized center in the electron transfer protein, rubredoxin, and she characterized the first and only analog for the oxidized [Fe4S4] cluster in the High Potential FeS proteins.  In recent years, her group has concentrated on analogs for the nickel-containing enzyme hydrogenase which catalyzes the technologically important reaction: 2H+ + 2 e-- = H2.  When Michelle started graduate school at MIT in 1968, there were essentially no women chemistry professors at research universities in the United States.  Her greatest satisfaction was the fact that, along with other women of her generation, she helped to break down the barriers that had limited the career opportunities for women chemists.  In everything that she did, Prof. Millar showed remarkable creativity, enthusiasm and warmth.  Prof. Stephen Lippard of MIT described her this way: 'Generous in spirit and lavish in her praise of others, Michelle was an extraordinary person'.

Michelle Millar, a high-spin synthetic inorganic chemist

244th National Meeting (2012)

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