Organic and Inorganic Chemistry

Biography

Andes Hess is Professor of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. He received his BA degree with Highest Honors from Williams 1962; MS 1963 and PhD 1966 degrees with Ken Wiberg at Yale University. After a two year NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship with Virgil Boekelheide at the University of Oregon he joined the Chemistry Department at Vanderbilt In 1973. He was awarded a National Academy of Sciences Exchange Fellowship and spent one year with Professor Rudolf Zahradník at the J Heyrovsky Institute Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. This experience led to his extensive collaborations in Central Europe. He was Chair of the Chemistry Department at Vanderbilt from 1982-1994. His early research was focused on the theory of aromaticity having published a seminal paper in 1971 on the ability of Huckel calculations to predict aromatic character for a wide range of cyclic conjugated carbon and heterocyclic systems. Later his research became centered on computational chemistry and lies primarily in the realm of physical organic chemistry the determination of reaction mechanisms. Most recently he has made significant contributions to the area of the biosynthesis of terpenes in particular the mechanism of the cyclization of squalenes to steroids and hopenes. He has authored or coauthored over 190 scientific papers

Research Interest

Computational chemistry, Physical Organic Chemistry, Determination of reaction mechanisms.