Donald Huffman

Donald R. Huffman
Born1935
DiedNovember 2, 2025(2025-11-02) (aged 89–90)
Known forBuckminsterfullerene
Scientific career
FieldsChemist
WorkplacesUniversity of Arizona
Buckminsterfullerene, C60

Donald R. Huffman (1935 – November 2, 2025) was an American academic Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Arizona. With Wolfgang Krätschmer, he developed a technique in 1990 for the simple production of large quantities of C60, or Buckminsterfullerene. Previously, in 1982~1983, he and Krätschmer had found, in a UV spectrum, the first signal of C60 ever observed.

Huffman and his team were nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry but didn’t get it due to technicalities.

Huffman was featured prominently in "Race to Catch a Buckyball", a 1995 episode of the Nova documentary series.

Huffman died on November 2, 2025, at the age of 90.

Bibliography

Awards

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "The University of Arizona Department of Physics". 2006–2014. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  2. ↑ Eberson, Lennart (1996). "[Nobel] Award Ceremony Speech". Retrieved June 19, 2014. Only in 1990 were physicists Donald Huffman and Wolfgang Krätschmer able to produce gram-sized quantities of C60 using a method that could be quickly and inexpensively duplicated in any laboratory. This made it possible to apply the whole battery of structural determination methods and show that C60 really had the structure its discoverers had hypothesized.
  3. ↑ Krätschmer, Wolfgang; Lamb, Lowell D.; Fostiropoulos, Konstantinos; Huffman, Donald R. (September 27, 1990). "Solid C60: a new form of carbon". Nature. 347 (6291). Nature Publishing Group: 354–358. doi:10.1038/347354a0. S2CID 4359360.
  4. ↑ Huffman, Donald R. (November 1991). "Solid C60". Physics Today. 44 (11): 22–29. doi:10.1063/1.881295.
  5. ↑ Hargittai, Balazs; Hargittai, István (2005). Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists. Imperial College Press. p. 393. ISBN 9781860945052.
  6. ↑ "Race to Catch a Buckyball". NOVA Teachers. December 19, 1995. PBS. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  7. ↑ Hsieh, Sumit Mazumdar with contributions from Ke Chiang; Lamb, Lowell; Huffman, Alex (November 14, 2025). "Donald Ray Huffman (1935 – 2025) | UA Science | Physics". w3.physics.arizona.iedu. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Materials Research Society MRS Medal". 1990–2016. Retrieved February 19, 2017.