F. Gordon A. Stone

Francis Gordon Albert Stone CBE, FRS, FRSC (19 May 1925 – 6 April 2011), always known as Gordon, was a British chemist who was a prolific and decorated scholar. He specialized in the synthesis of main group and transition metal organometallic compounds. He was the author of more than 900 academic publications resulting in an h-index of 72 in 2011.

Early life Gordon Stone was born in Exeter, Devon in 1925, the only child of Sidney Charles Stone, a civil servant, and Florence Beatrice Stone (née Coles). He received his B.A. in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1951, both from Christ's College, Cambridge (Cambridge University), England, where he studied under Harry Julius Emeléus.

Academic life After graduating from Cambridge, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Southern California for two years, before being appointed as an instructor in the Chemistry Department at Harvard University, and was appointed assistant professor in 1957.

Among the many foci of his studies were complexes of fluorocarbon, isocyanide, polyolefin, alkylidene and alkylidyne ligands. At Baylor, he maintained a research program on boron hydrides, a lifelong interest.

In 1988 he chaired the Review Committee commissioned by the British Government (the now-dissolved University Grants Committee) to carry out a review of chemistry in UK academia ("University Chemistry — The Way Forward", "The Stone Report"). was never implemented. With Wilkinson, he edited the influential series Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry. With Robert West, he edited the series Advances in Organometallic Chemistry.

The Gordon Stone Lecture series at the University of Bristol is named in his honour.

Annual Stone Symposiums are also held at Baylor University in his honor.

Awards Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1970) Fellow of the Royal Society (1976), Vice-President 1987-1988 Chugaev Medal of the Kurnakov Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences) (1978) Royal Society of Chemistry’s Ludwig Mond Award (1983) American Chemical Society’s award in Inorganic Chemistry (1985) Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship (1988) Royal Society's Davy Medal (1989) Royal Society of Chemistry’s Longstaff Prize (1990) Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1990)

Personal life He married Judith Hislop (1928-2008) of Sydney, Australia in 1956 with whom he had three sons.