Educational Background:

PhD, University of Illinois, 1962 MS, University of Illinois, 1960 AB, Oberlin College, 1957

Awards:

•  National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow • Science and Engineering Research Council Visiting Fellow • NATO/Heineman Senior Fellow • Clark Distinguished Teaching Award

Research Description:

Professor Emeritus Robert Fay was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1936. He received his AB at Oberlin College in 1957 and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois in 1960 and 1962 under the direction of T.S. Piper. Following his graduate studies, Professor Fay came to Cornell University as an Assistant Professor in 1962. In 1968 he was promoted to Associate Professor and to Full Professor in 1975.

Professor Fay has been the recipient of several awards including fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Science and Engineering Research Council, and was a NATO/Heineman Senior Fellow. In 1980 he was the recipient of the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences Clark Distinguished Teaching Award. He is the member of numerous professional and honorary societies including the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry (London), and the American Crystallographic Association.

In 2007, the fifth edition of Professor Fay?s textbook, Chemistry, co-authored with Professor Emeritus John McMurry, will be published.

Selected Publications:

Stereochemistry and molecular rearrangements of some six-, seven, and eight-coordinate chelates of early transition metals. Coord. Chem. Rev. 1996, 154, 99.

Gau, H.-M.; Fay, R. C. NMR studies of inversion and dithiophosphate methyl group exchange in dialkoxybis(O,O'-dimethyl dithio-phosphato)titanium(iv) complexes: Evidence for a bond-rupture mechanism. Inorg. Chem. 1990, 29, 4974.

Femec, D. A.; Silver, M. E.; Fay, R. C. Influence of p-donation on N-methyl group exchange in zirconocene N,N-dimethyldithiocarbamates and N,N-dimethyl thiocarbamates. Inorg. Chem. 1989, 28, 2789.

Weir, J. R.; Fay, R. C. Stereochemistry and metal-centered rearrangements of eight-coordinate niobium(V) and tantalum(V) dithiocarbamates and monothiocarbamates. Inorg. Chem. 1986, 25, 2969.

Weir, J. R.; Bruder, A. H.; Fay, R. C. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of stereochemical rearrangements in pentagonal bipyramidal h5-cyclopenta-dienyltris(N,N-dimethyldithiocarbamato)-titanium(IV), -zirconium(IV), and -hafnium(IV). Inorg. Chem. 1984, 23, 1079.

Lindmark, A. F.; Fay, R. C. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of inversion and diketonate R-group exchange in dialkoxybis(b-diketonato)-titanium(IV) complexes. Evidence for a twist mechanism. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1983, 105, 2118.