One of the 20th-century’s leading chemists, born in Portland, Oregon, and educated first at the Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) and then at the California Institute of Technology (CIT), from which he received his Ph.D. in 1925.
His main work in chemistry was in determining the nature of chemical bonds and molecular structure. In 1931, he published the milestone work on the subject, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, and Structure of Molecules and Crystals.