George C. Pimentel

Who was George C. Pimentel?

George Claude Pimentel was the inventor of the chemical laser. He also developed the modern technique of matrix isolation in low-temperature chemistry. In theoretical chemistry, he proposed the three-center four-electron bond which is now accepted as the best simple model of hypervalent molecules.

An alumnus of University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley, Pimentel began teaching at Berkeley in 1949, where he remained until his death in 1989. Upon the progress of chemistry at UCLA, he remarked : “... the future of the department rests on young people.”