Head and shoulders image of Dr. Rudy Abramovitch, assistant professor of Chemistry, 1957-1967.

Bio/Historical Note: Born in El Eskenderiya (Alexandria), Egypt, Dr. Rudolph Abraham (Rudy) Abramovitch attended Farouk University (now Alexandria University) before earning a BSc in chemistry from the University of London in 1950. Dr. Abramovitch completed a PhD in organic chemistry in 1953 at King’s College London and a DSc in organic chemistry at the University of London in 1964. After a brief stint at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, he accepted an appointment as an assistant professor of Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a full professor. In the late 1960s he moved to the University of Alabama, where he served as a research professor, before becoming head of the department of Chemistry and Geology at Clemson University in South Carolina in 1977. Credited with authoring or coauthoring more than 300 papers and books, Dr. Abramovitch conducted cutting-edge research involving the reaction mechanisms of nitrenes and azides, substitution reactions of pyridine rings, nitrenium and oxenium ion chemistry, and microwave remediation. Dr. Abramovitch was a Fulbright Fellow in France in 1983. A commemorative issue of the Archive for Organic Chemistry was published in honor of his 70th birthday in 2001. Dr. Abramovitch retired in 2006 and named Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Geology. Clemson presented him with its Sigma Xi Award for Outstanding Research in 1981 and its Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research in 2006. Rudy Abramovitch died on 26 November 2013 in Clemson, South Carolina, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.