After that, he developed the technique of spin-labels, whereby electron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra can be used to study the structure and kinetics of proteins and membranes.
[3] He recognized that the discovery of nuclear hyperfine interactions in aromatic free radicals represented a major breakthrough in the study of the electronic structure of unsaturated hydrocarbons.
His theoretical and experimental investigations of the anisotropic nuclear hyperfine interactions laid a firm foundation for the analysis of the paramagnetic resonance spectra of organic free radicals in.
In fact nitric oxide free radical "spin labels" provided some of the earliest evidence for the fluidity of biological membranes.
[7] In 1983 McConnell founded Molecular Devices Corporation along with three former graduate students and post docs (Gillian Humphries, j. Wallace Parce and Dean Hafeman) together with a talented engineer, Calvin Chow.
McConnell's influence comes not only from his own impressive publication list, but also from the scores of scientists whose careers he has inspired, by his example of intellectual brilliance, and personal integrity.
[12] He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1983/84 for "his studies of the electronic structure of molecules through paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and for the introduction and biological applications of spin label techniques".
Harden M. McConnell was born on July 18, 1927, in Richmond, Virginia, and his interest in science, particularly chemistry, began when he discovered a box of copper sulfate crystals in the basement of his home at the approximate age of 12.