Linus Carl Pauling was a famous chemist who was responsible for the majority of the advancements in chemistry today. Pauling is credited with the introduction of electronegativity (the tendency of an atom to attract electrons, for those not familiar with electronegativity.) in 1932. Basically Linus allowed us to map a very accurate model of how much energy was required to break different bonds as well mapping the dipole movements of molecules. This is the chemistry equivalent of mapping the human genome in biology. By doing this he established a scale that we are now able to use as a reference instead of a guess and check method that was once used.
His other work in the chemistry field has been equally important. His research with the tetravalency (A state of an atom with four electrons available for covalent bonding) of carbon, as well as the hybridization of atomic orbitals were very important in conjunction with the VSEPR (Valence Shell Electron-Pair Repulsion) theory. He was also one of only four people to have ever won two Nobel prizes. The final scientific boundary Pauling pushed was that of establishing the field of quantum chemistry.
If anyone has any questions I’d love to talk about the area of study to the best of my knowledge.
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