The Many Chemists Who Could Have Proposed the Woodward‐Hoffmann Rules But Didn't: The Organic Chemists Who Discovered the Smoking Guns[] **

Abstract

It is a reasonable question to ask, why, as of 1965 when the five Woodward‐Hoffmann communications appeared, did no other organic chemist discover the orbital symmetry rules for pericyclic reactions? Two theoretical chemists – Luitzen Oosterhoff (in 1961) and Kenichi Fukui (in 1964) had discovered portions of the orbital symmetry rules before Woodward and Hoffmann. Why not organic chemists? Indeed, perhaps the greatest motivation to discover the mechanism of a mysterious reaction is to uncover key examples of that mysterious reaction in your very own laboratory. The stories of 20 chemists and R. B. Woodward are discussed in this paper which is Paper 6 in a 27‐paper series on the history of Woodward‐Hoffmann rules. Social, political, and scientific explanations will also be presented as partial explanations as to why none of these individuals – except Woodward with Hoffmann – solved the pericyclic no‐mechanism problem.