Ingold, Christopher

Born Oct. 28, 1893; died Dec. 8, 1970. British organic chemist. Professor at the University of London from 1930.

Most of Ingold’s works were devoted to the study of the structure and reactivities of aromatic hydrocarbons. He investigated the optical properties of benzene and the effects of various substituents on the reactivities of the carbon atoms in the aromatic ring, confirmed the application of the rule of orientation to deuteration of the aromatic ring, and studied the effect of ring substituents on side chain reactivity. He proposed a new explanation of the Walden inversion. A series of works was devoted to the investigation of the electronic mechanism of the mutual influences of atoms in the molecules of compounds. He developed the theory of mesomerism (1930–32), which was used to explain the structures of molecules of complex organic compounds not fitting into ordinary valence formulas.