Saul Winstein

{{Short description|Canadian chemist (1912–1969)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Saul Winstein

|image =

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|caption = Saul Winstein

|birth_date = {{birth date|1912|10|8}}

|birth_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada

|residence =

|death_date = {{death date and age|1969|11|23|1912|10|8}}

|death_place = Los Angeles, California, United States

|field = Physical Organic Chemistry

|work_institution = UCLA

|alma_mater =

|doctoral_advisor =

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|known_for = Winstein reaction
Grunwald–Winstein equation
Non-classical cation
Anchimeric assistance

|prizes = ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1948)

National Medal of Science (1970)

|footnotes =

}}

Saul Winstein (October 8, 1912 – November 23, 1969) was a Jewish Canadian chemist who discovered the Winstein reaction. He argued a non-classical cation was needed to explain the stability of the norbornyl cation.{{cite journal|last1=Young|first1=W. G.|last2=Cram|first2=D. J.|title=Professor Saul Winstein October 8, 1912-November 23, 1969|journal=International Journal of Chemical Kinetics|date=May 1970|volume=2|issue=3|pages=167–173|doi=10.1002/kin.550020302}} This fueled a debate with Herbert C. Brown over the existence of σ-delocalized carbocations. Winstein also first proposed the concept of an intimate ion pair.{{cite journal|last1=Winstein|first1=S.|last2=Clippinger|first2=E.|last3=Fainberg|first3=A. H.|last4=Heck|first4=R.|last5=Robinson|first5=G. C.|title=Salt Effects and Ion Pairs in Solvolysis and Related Reactions. III.1 Common Ion Rate Depression and Exchange of Anions during Acetolysis|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|date=January 1956|volume=78|issue=2|pages=328–335|doi=10.1021/ja01583a022}} He was co-author of the Grunwald–Winstein equation, concerning solvolysis rates.{{cite journal

| title = The Correlation of Solvolysis Rates and the Classification of Solvolysis Reactions Into Mechanistic Categories

| pages = 2700–2707

| author = W. G. Young, D. J. Cram

| journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society

| volume = 73

| issue = 6

| year = 1951

| doi = 10.1021/ja01150a078 }}

Richard F. Heck, who earlier in his career had undertaken postgraduate studies with Winstein, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.{{cite web|title=The problem of the non-classical ion|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1994/illpres/problem.html|publisher=Nobel Media|access-date=14 July 2015}}