Andrew Streitwieser

Who is Andrew Streitwieser?

Andrew Streitwieser is an American chemist known for his contributions to physical organic chemistry.

Streitwieser was born in 1927 in Buffalo, New York and he grew up in New York City. He attended Columbia College and then Columbia University where he earned a PhD in the research group of William von Eggers Doering in 1952. He then was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John D. Roberts at MIT. He has been Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley since 1953.

Streitwieser was one of the pioneers of molecular orbital theory and his book Molecular Orbital Theory for Organic Chemists had a lasting impact on the field. His Chemical Reviews article titled "Solvolytic Displacement Reactions at Saturated Carbon" was influential in the field of physical organic chemistry. Streitwieser is also the author of the university textbooks Introduction to Organic Chemistry and Progress in Physical Organic Chemistry as well as the autobiography A Lifetime of Synergy With Theory and Experiment

Streitwieser was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1969 and is an American Chemical Society Fellow.