Fred C. Anson

Frederick Colvig Anson (February 17, 1933 – May 22, 2024) was an American electrochemist and a long-time professor at the California Institute of Technology.

He received an honorary degree from the Paris Diderot University in 1933. He was an Instructor at Caltech between 1957 and 1958; Assistant Professor between 1958 and 1962, Associate Professor between 1962 and 1968, a Professor between 1968 and 1995, an Elizabeth W. Gilloon Gilloon Professor between 1995 and 2001, a Gilloon Professor Emeritus from 2001 until his death in 2024. He was an executive officer for Chemistry at Caltech between 1973 and 1977, and the chairman at Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering between 1984 and 1994. and grew up in California's Wilmar (now South San Gabriel). There, as a kid, he delivered the Los Angeles Times as his first job. He attended Mark Keppel High School where he was encouraged by a teacher, a Caltech alumni, to apply for the university. Anson attended a sophomore analytical chemistry course of Ernest Swift and also carried out electroanalytical chemical research in his laboratory. He spent his summers working at Harshaw Chemical Company, located near East Los Angeles. and worked in J. J. Lingane's research group with Allen Bard. From 1970s to 90s, he investigated numerous surface-attached systems and was among the firsts in using thin polymer films to confine reactants at electrode surfaces. He also contributed to the understanding of electrocatalytic oxygen reduction.

Legacy The National Academy of Sciences states that "Among his numerous impactful studies, he elucidated the electrochemistry of heteropolymetallates and catalysts for the electroreduction of dioxygen to water", a reaction occurring at the cathode of a fuel cell.

Throughout his career, Anson received numerous prestigious awards, including:

The David C. Grahame Award of the Electrochemical Society (the inaugural recipient) The C.N. Reilley Award in Electroanalytical Chemistry (1986) The American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry (1989) The Humboldt Research Award (1984), which enabled him to conduct research in Berlin

Anson was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, and was a member of National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences alongside neuroscientist Eugene Roberts in 1988.

Other work Anson, along with others, founded the Western Electrochemical and Technical Society, which held casual meetings to discuss electrochemistry on the beach in San Clemente. This group eventually turned into the Gordon Research Conference on Electrochemistry.

Anson chaired the search committee for Caltech's next president for a year and a half. After an year and half, the committee selected Marvin L. Goldberger as the president.

Anson was chairman of the faculty for two years, then became division chair for CCE in 1984.

Personal life After Anson joined Caltech as an instructor in 1957, he felt that it was necessary to get an interlibrary loan, for which he was directed to meet Roxana, who worked in what was then the General Library. They married later in 1959.