Robert H. Grubbs was born on February 27, 1942 in Possum Trot, Kentucky. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University in 1968. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, Grubbs accepted a faculty position at Michigan State University, where he taught until moving to the California Institute of Technology in 1978. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. In 2005, Grubbs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Yves Chauvin and Richard Schrock “for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.” This has allowed for “synthesis methods that are more efficient, simpler, and produce less waste.” He also synthesized a series of catalysts, named the Grubbs’ Catalysts, which are popular in synthetic organic chemistry.
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