Nevil Sidgwick

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Nevil Sidgwick
Nevil Sidgwick
Born	8 May 1873; Oxford
Died	15 March 1952 Oxford
Nationality	English
Fields	chemistry
Known for	valency

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick (b in Oxford on 8 May 1873; d in Oxford on 15 March 1952) was an English theoretical chemist who made significant contributions to the theory of valency and chemical bonding.

After a few years at Rugby School, Sidgwick spent almost his entire career in the city of his birth, becoming a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1901, having previously studied at Christ Church. He was Professor of Chemistry from 1935 to 1945.

Sidgwick became absorbed by the study of atomic structure and its importance in chemical bonding. He explained the bonding in coordination compounds (complexes), with a convincing account of the significance of the dative bond. Together with his students he demonstrated the existence and wide-ranging importance of the hydrogen bond.

His works include The Organic Chemistry of Nitrogen (1910), The Electronic Theory of Valency (1927), Some Physical Properties of the Covalent Link in Chemistry (1933), and the definitive The Chemical Elements and their Compounds (1950).

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1922.

He died in Oxford on 15 March 1952.

The Sidgwick Laboratory in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory for organic chemistry at Oxford University was named after him.