Christopher Spencer Foote Explained

Christopher Spencer Foote
Birth Date:	June 5, 1935
Birth Place:	Hartford, Connecticut
Death Place:	Santa Monica, California
Nationality:	American
Field:	Chemistry
Work Institutions:	UCLA
Alma Mater:	Yale University, Harvard University
Doctoral Advisor:	Robert Burns Woodward
Known For:	Singlet oxygen
Prizes:	Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowship Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award Tolman Award Fulbright Award

Christopher Spencer Foote (June 5, 1935  - June 13, 2005) was a professor of chemistry at UCLA and an expert in reactive oxygen species, in particular, singlet oxygen.^[1] He published over 250 research articles and has an h-index of 67.^[2] He was also known for his textbook Organic Chemistry (with Brown and Iverson).^{[3] [4]}

The American Chemical Society gave him their Baekeland award in 1975, named him a Cope Scholar in 1994, and gave him the Tolman Award in 1995. In 2000 an international symposium in honor of his 65th birthday was held in Hawaii.^[5] The Christopher S. Foote Chair of chemistry at UCLA, currently held by Neil Garg, is named after him.

Education

• B.S. Yale University (1957)
• Ph.D. Harvard University, Organic Chemistry, (1962)
  Research advisor, R.B. Woodward, "Angle strain and solvolytic reactivity in bridged bicyclic systems."^[6]

Research and Teaching Appointments

• Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1962–1969
• Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1969–2005

Research

Reactive oxygen species

Diels-Alder reaction with singlet oxygen,^[7] oxidative damage of DNA.^[8]

C₇₀ and C₆₀ as photosensitizers

Notes and References

1. Greer, A. "Christopher Foote's Discovery of the Role of Singlet Oxygen (¹O₂, ¹Δ_g) in Photosensitized Oxidation Reactions", Accounts of Chemical Research 2006, 39, 797-804
2. [ISI Science Citation Index]
3. .
4. http://www.chem.ucla.edu/news/C_S_Foote_obituary.htm UCLA Chemist Christopher Spencer Foote Died at Age 70
5. http://www.chem.ucla.edu/research/org/HAWAII/hawaii.html Photos from Foote symposium.
6. Harvard HOLLIS search, author: Christopher Spencer Foote, Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1962.
7. Jenny Chen, K.N. Houk, and Christopher S. Foote * "Theoretical Study of the Concerted and Stepwise Mechanisms of Triazolinedione Diels-Alder Reactions" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 12303-12309.
8. Ferran Prat, K. N. Houk and Christopher S. Foote, "Effect of Guanine Stacking on the Oxidation of 8-Oxo-guanine in B-DNA," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 845-846.