George McClelland Whitesides (born August 3, 1939) is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University.

He is best known for his work in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecular self-assembly, soft lithography,[3] microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology.

Whitesides' graduate work in organometallic chemistry used NMR spectroscopy and density matrices to study Grignard reagents.

He also studied spin–spin coupling in a variety of organic compounds, using density matrix calculations to examine the spin systems that NMR analyses detect.

[10] In 1982, Whitesides moved back to the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University, his alma mater, taking his laboratory with him.

[11] At Harvard, Whitesides has served as chairman of the Chemistry Department (1986–89)[12] and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (1989–92).

[8] Whitesides has made scientific contributions in diverse areas, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), microfluidics and nanotechnology.

[8] Whitesides and his research group have made significant contributions by developing techniques for soft lithography and microcontact printing.

[8] More recent research interests include energy,[22] the origin of life,[23] soft robotics,[24] and science for developing economics.

He was part of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, which authored the National Academies' report Rising Above the Gathering Storm (2007).

Addressing human, financial, and informational issues, the report argued in favor of:[28] In 2002, Whitesides served as the Chairman of the International Review Panel that evaluated the state of chemical research in the United Kingdom.

[32] In an article in Nature (2011), Whitesides and John M. Deutch challenged the scientific and chemical communities to become more relevant to current social and environmental issues.

[35] Whitesides and Deutch argued that teaching science in ways that address current issues can still lead to foundational work and scientific breakthroughs.

[10] He serves on the editorial advisory boards of several scientific journals, including ACS Nano, Angewandte Chemie, Chemistry & Biology, and Small.

George Thomas Whitesides was CEO of Virgin Galactic, a firm developing commercial space vehicles.

In 2024, George was elected to Congress from 27th district of California after defeating three-term GOP incumbent, Mike Garcia.

Ben Whitesides is lead singer and songwriter of The Joggers, a rock band based in Portland, Oregon.