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Richard Smalley papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 490
Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586. Box 18 stored onsite in the vault at Woodson Research Center.

Scope and Contents

The Richard E. Smalley Papers comprise the lectures, presentations and supporting materials leading to Smalley's discovery of fullerenes, which eventually lead to his Nobel Prize. Included are lectures and presentations, conferences attended, awards received, and articles written. Copies of Dr. Smalley's actual laboratory research notes and materials are included. The papers also include personal memorabilia.

Dates

  • 1943 - 2007
  • Majority of material found within 1990 - 2005

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586. Box 18 stored onsite in the vault at Woodson Research Center.

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research. Series XI, the copies of Dr. Smalley's research notes, are restricted. Permission to view these materials must be obtained from the Rice University Office of the General Counsel.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish from the Richard Smalley Papers must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library. Copyright release on articles, lectures and any published materials must be obtained from the publication.

Biographical Note

Richard E. Smalley was affiliated with Rice University from 1976 until his death in 2005, serving as the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry at Rice beginning in 1982 and Professor of Physics at Rice beginning in 1990. A co-founder of the Rice Quantum Institute in 1979, he served as its chairman beginning in 1986, and was the director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1990), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1991), and was the recipient of the 1991 Irving Langmuir Prize in chemical physics, the 1992 International Prize for New Materials (shared with R.F. Curl and H.W. Kroto), the 1992 E.O. Lawrence Award of the U.S. Department of Energy, the 1992 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry, the 1993 William H. Nichols Medal, and the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with R.F. Curl and H.W. Kroto).

Smalley pioneered advances in the development of supersonic beam laser spectroscopy, super-cold pulsed beams, and laser-driven sources of free radicals, triplets, and metal and semiconductor cluster beams. He discovered and characterized fullerenes, the third elemental form of carbon after graphite and diamond, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Born June 6, 1943, in Akron, Ohio, Smalley received his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1965 from the University of Michigan, and master's and doctorate degrees from Princeton University in 1971 and 1973.

Extent

16 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract:

The papers of Nobel Prize winning chemist and physicist Richard E. Smalley are comprised of the lectures, presentations and supporting materials leading to Smalley's discovery of fullerenes, which eventually lead to his Nobel Prize. Included are lectures and presentations, conferences attended, awards received, and articles written. Copies of Dr. Smalley's actual laboratory research notes and materials are included. The papers also include personal memorabilia. Smalley was affiliated with Rice University from 1976 until his death in 2005.

Acquisition Information

The Richard Smalley Papers were received on Sept. 26, 2000 from Carter Kittrell, Rice Chemistry Department research scientist, after Richard Smalley had placed them in storage. Additional materials were received in 2010 and 2015 from the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

Related Materials

Materials related to the Richard Smalley Academic Papers can be found in the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology Records (UA 184, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University).

General Physical Description note

(18 boxes)

General

Dr. Smalley's Nobel Prize is not held by the Woodson Research Center. The Nobel Prize was framed and displayed in the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology. The certificate for the prize is in the WRC vault.

Processing Information

Processed by Lee Pecht June 2001
Title
Guide to the Richard Smalley papers, 1943-2007, bulk 1990-2005
Status
Completed
Author
Lee Pecht
Date
2016
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA