James A. Ibers was the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry before becoming an emeritus professor of chemistry at Northwestern University upon retirement. He is recognized for contributions to inorganic chemistry, especially in the areas of coordination chemistry, bio-inorganic chemistry, solid state synthesis and X-ray crystallography. Ibers passed on December 14, 2021, at the age of 91.
Education Ibers received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees at California Institute of Technology. His thesis, awarded in 1954, was done under the direction of Verner F. Schomoker and James H. Sturdivant.
Career After graduation, Ibers accepted a staff scientist position at Shell Development Company and later Brookhaven National Laboratory. Starting in 1965 until his retirement, Ibers was a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University. His broad research interests included many aspects of organometallic,Ukai, Toshinao; Kawazura, Hiroshi; Ishii, Yoshio; Bonnet, J. J.; Ibers, James A. "Chemistry of dibenzylideneacetone-palladium(0) complexes. I. Novel tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium(solvent) complexes and their reactions with quinones" Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 1974, volume 65, pp. 253-66. bioinorganic,Ray, Gigi B.; Li, Xiao Yuan; Ibers, James A.; Sessler, Jonathan L.; Spiro, Thomas G. "How far can proteins bend the FeCO unit? Distal polar and steric effects in heme proteins and models" Journal of the American Chemical Society 1994, volume 116, pp. 162-76. and solid state chemistry.Sunshine, Steven A.; Kang, Doris; Ibers, James A. "A new low-temperature route to metal polychalcogenides: solid-state synthesis of potassium titanium sulfide (K4Ti3S14), a novel one-dimensional compound" Journal of the American Chemical Society 1987, volume 109, pp. 6202-4. Ibers was a noted pioneer in the applications of X-Ray Crystallography to chemical problems and issues associated with inorganic bonding.
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