Donald Huffman

{{short description|American professor of physics}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Donald R. Huffman

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| nationality = American

| field = Chemist

| work_institutions = University of Arizona

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| known_for = Buckminsterfullerene

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}}

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Donald R. Huffman (born 1935) is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Arizona.{{cite web |url=http://www.physics.arizona.edu/physics/people.php?page=emeritus&group=f |title=The University of Arizona Department of Physics |author= |date=2006–2014 |accessdate=June 18, 2014}} With Wolfgang Krätschmer, he developed a technique in 1990 for the simple production of large quantities of C₆₀, or Buckminsterfullerene.{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/presentation-speech.html |title=[Nobel] Award Ceremony Speech |last1=Eberson |first1=Lennart |date=1996 |accessdate=June 19, 2014 |quote=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.}}{{cite journal |last1=Krätschmer |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Lamb |first2=Lowell D. |last3=Fostiropoulos |first3=Konstantinos |last4=Huffman |first4=Donald R. |date=27 September 1990 |title=Solid C₆₀: a new form of carbon |journal=Nature |volume=347 |publisher=Nature Publishing Group |issue=6291 |pages=354–358 |doi=10.1038/347354a0 |s2cid=4359360 }}{{cite journal |last=Huffman |first=Donald R. |date=November 1991 |title=Solid C₆₀ |journal=Physics Today |volume=44 |issue=11 |pages=22–29 |doi=10.1063/1.881295}} Previously, in 1982~1983, he and Krätschmer had found, in a UV spectrum, the first signal of C₆₀ ever observed.{{cite book |last1=Hargittai |first1=Balazs |last2=Hargittai |first2=István |date=2005 |title=Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFHyUfFUVIwC&dq=Donald+Huffman+fullerene&pg=PA390 |publisher=Imperial College Press |page=393 |isbn= 9781860945052}}

Huffman was featured prominently in "Race to Catch a Buckyball", a 1995 episode of the Nova documentary series.{{Cite episode |title=Race to Catch a Buckyball |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/programs/2216_buckybal.html |accessdate=19 June 2014 |series=NOVA Teachers |network=PBS |date=19 December 1995 }}