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Kurt M. Mislow Papers

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The Kurt M. Mislow Papers contain the professional and personal papers of German-American organic chemist Kurt M. Mislow (1923-2017).

Kurt M. Mislow was born in Berlin, German. Due to the rise of National Socialism, his family left Germany, first for Milan, and then London. In 1940, the family emigrated to the United States with the help of Mislow's uncle, Alfred Eisenstaedt, a well-known photographer. Mislow earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University in 1944, and a PhD from the California Institute of Technology, under the direction of Linus Pauling, in 1947.

Mislow was a noted pioneer in stereochemistry and was responsible for introducing the concepts of symmetry and chirality to the field. These two concepts helped make stereochemistry fundamental to a number of scientific disciplines, including physics, biochemistry, genetics, and pharmaceuticals.

Mislow joined the faculty of Princeton University’s Department of Chemistry in 1964, where he served as the Hugh Stott Taylor Professor of Chemistry and Department Chairman. At Princeton, he continued his stereochemical research into symmetry and chirality, which included designing and synthesizing complex organic molecules that validated these two concepts. In retirement, he devoted his attention to molecular topology (“rubber sheet” geometry), analyzing deformable chiral molecules such as knots and links.

In addition to his stereochemical research, Mislow was noted for his abilities as a teacher, teaching both undergraduate and graduate level chemistry classes over the course of his career. Mislow was awarded two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships (1956 and 1974) and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1959-1963). He was also the recipient of numerous awards, including the James Flack Norris Award (1975), William H. Nichols Award (1987), and Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1995).

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