With authors who are both accomplished researchers and educators, Vollhardt and Schore’s Organic Chemistry takes a functional group approach with a heavy emphasis on understanding how the structure of a molecule determines how that molecule will function in chemical reactions. By understanding the connection between structure and function, students will better understand mechanisms and solve practical problems in organic chemistry.
K. Peter C. Vollhardt was born in Madrid, raised in Buenos Aires and Munich, studied at the University of Munich, got his Ph.D. with Professor Peter Garratt at the University College, London, and was a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Bob Bergman (then) at the California Institute of Technology. He moved to Berkeley in 1974 when he began his efforts toward the development of organocobalt reagents in organic synthesis, the preparation of theoretically interesting hydrocarbons, the assembly of novel transition metal arrays with potential in catalysis, and the discovery of a parking space. Among other pleasant experiences, he was a Studienstiftler, Adolf Windaus medalist, Humboldt Senior Scientist, ACS Organometallic Awardee, Otto Bayer Prize Awardee, A. C. Cope Scholar, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize Holder, and recipient of the Medal of the University Aix-Marseille and an Honorary Doctorate from The University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is the current Chief Editor of Synlett. Among his more than 350 publications, he treasures especially this textbook in organic chemistry, translated into 13 languages. Peter is married to Marie-Jos Sat, a French artist, and they have two children, Paloma (b. 1994) and Julien (b. 1997).
Neil E. Schore was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1948 and educated in public schoolsin the Bronx, New York, and Ridgefield, New Jersey. He completed a B.A. with honors in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. Moving back to New York, he worked with the late Professor Nicholas J. Turro at Columbia University, studying photochemical and photophysical processes of organic compounds for his Ph.D. thesis. He first met co-author Peter Vollhardt in the 1970s when they both were doing postdoctoral work in Professor Robert Bergman's laboratory at Cal Tech. Since joining the UC-Davis faculty in 1976, Schore has taught organic chemistry to more than 15,000 nonchemistry majors, winning seven teaching awards, publishing over 100 papers in various areas related to organic chemistry, and refereeing several hundred local youth soccer games. Neil is married to Carrie Erickson, a microbiologist at the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. They have two children, Michael (b. 1981) and Stefanie (b. 1983), both of whom carried out experiments for the new Seventh Edition of
Organic Chemistry.
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