Ronald Breslow

Ronald Breslow—Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, 1996 president of the American Chemical Society, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences—died Oct. 25 at age 86 in New York City after a struggle with cancer.

“I’m stunned and very sad,” David R. Reichman, chair of the chemistry department at Columbia, tells C&EN. The loss is particularly shocking for department members because another giant in the chemistry field, Columbia professor Gilbert Stork, died only a few days earlier, noted Reichman in an email message he sent to colleagues this morning.