Cornell's Hoffman Appointed Woodward Visiting Professor

Ronald Hoffman, professor of Physical Science at Cornell University, will be the first Woodward Visiting Professor of Chemistry. Jeremy R. Knowles '53, chairman of the Chemistry Department, said yesterday.

The professorship, which enables prominent chemists selected by the Chemistry Department to spend between three months and a year at Harvard, was established last month in memory of Robert Burns Woodward. Woodward, a Nobel Laureate regarded as the greatest chemist of his time, taught at Harvard for nearly 40 years.

Hoffman, who has been trying to calculate the properties of molecules outside of the laboratory, is planning to come to Harvard for one semester during the 1983-84 school year.

Hoffman said yesterday he is unable to come next year because of obligations that keep him at Cornell.

After earning his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard, Hoffman remained as a junior fellow, working with Woodward until he left for Cornell.

In 1965 the two developed the "Woodward-Hoffman rules" of orbital symmetry, which have explained a large class of chemical reactions, Knowles said yesterday. In 1973, they received the first Arthur C. Cope Award in Organic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society for their work.

"I have a special connection to Woodward--and to Harvard." Hoffman said yesterday, adding that Woodward was a "remarkable person" who had a talent for interacting with graduate students.

Hoffman said he is coming to Harvard largely to honor his former teacher and colleague.

Hoffman said he hopes to teach a course to seniors and graduate students dealing with his own research, but added that he does not know for sure what he will be doing at Harvard.

He said he intends to do research here in theoretical, inorganic, and solid state chemistry, and hopes to collaborate with Richard H. Holm, professor of Chemistry.

Hoffman has received two honorary degrees and seven awards from prestigious chemical societies. His credits include more than 30 lecturing positions at colleges all over the world.

"He is a theoretical chemist of very wide interests, who will interact splendidly with all of the faculty and students in the department," Knowles said yesterday.

"It is always a pleasure to go back to Harvard," Hoffman said, adding that one semester will be just enough time to teach people what he is doing and to find out what is going on here