History - People - Albert Derrick Allen

Albert Derrick (Bert) Allen (1919-1976) Tenure: Lecturer 1952-1957

An inorganic chemist, Dr Allen moved from UCL to the University of Toronto (Canada) in 1957. In 1965, he and his student Senoff isolated the first stable complex of dinitrogen, [Ru(NH₃)₅(N₂)]²⁺, which was reported in J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. , 1965 , 621. This remarkable complex caught the imagination of chemists across the globe. Work on dinitrogen fixation continues to this day both at UCL and elsewhere

This page last modified 20 September, 2010