Howard Ensign Simmons, Jr.

Howard Ensign Simmons Jr. (June 17, 1929 – April 26, 1997) was an American chemist, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before starting a long career at DuPont, who with his workmate Ronald D. Smith discovered the Simmons–Smith reaction.

Biography Simmons was born on June 17, 1929, in Norfolk, Virginia and was an only child. His father was a Sea Captain and his mother was a descendant of Jacob Hübner. Growing up he had a laboratory at home which he began conducting experiments in at the age of 12.

Despite winning a scholarship to attend the University of Virgina, he instead decided to study at MIT and gained a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1951, where he minored in mathematics and physics, remaining at MIT to complete his post graduate education,

By 1954 he had completed his doctorate and he accepted an offer to join DuPont. and published a journal about it in 1958. By 1959 Simmons had been promoted to be a Supervisor at DuPont. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

He retired from DuPont in 1992, after becoming Vice President, and the same year as he was given the National Medal of Science by President Bush,

The American Chemical Society awarded him the Priestley Medal for his contributions to chemistry,

He was a heavy smoker for most of his life and developed lung cancer and heart disease. He died on April 26, 1997.