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Columbia Community Mourns Loss of Brian Bent, Chemistry Professor

by Russell Steinthal

Students returning to Havemeyer Hall this fall will notice the absence of a familiar face and feel a void left by the July 23 death of 35 year old chemistry professor Brian E. Bent. Professor Bent collapsed and died while bicycling on a family vacation in northern Minnesota. While no official cause of death has been determined, Professor Bent's wife, Stacey, said the attending physician believes that a heart ailment was responsible.

Professor Bent began his Columbia career in 1988 becoming active both in the classroom, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses, and in the laboratory where he did ground-breaking research in surface chemistry. His most notable research accomplishment was demonstrating the mechanism by which chemical reactions, particularly those between gasses and solids, take place on solid surfaces. His approach was to seal a well-prepared surface in a vacuum, allow the reaction to occur and then use electron beams, mass spectroscopy, and isotope labeling to identify molecules and their actions on the surface. In recognition of his accomplishments Professor Bent had just been appointed to a full professorship July 1.

Professor Bent's work also helped answer some long-standing surface chemistry questions. More than 75 publications reported his explanation of the mechanism controlling the Fischer-Tropsch process, by which German industry was able to manufacture 15 million barrels of fuel each year during World War II. He also synthesized dimethyl silicon chloride, the basic product of a $1 billion dollar U.S. industry, from silicon and methyl chloride; according to Professor Kenneth B. Eisenthal, chairman of Columbia's Department of Chemistry, "No one had ever succeeded in completing this reaction under controlled conditions, in a vacuum."

In memory of Professor Bent, the Chemistry Department is accepting contributions to two memorial funds (see sidebar). The first will benefit Professor Bent's two children: Rachel, age three, and Andrew who is eight months old. The second fund will be used to fund a memorial lectureship to be held in the Department of Chemistry.

Professor Bent was born in Minneapolis in 1960 and in 1982 he graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of California, Berkeley he spent two years at AT&T Bell Laboratories doing postdoctoral research into the mechanisms of chemical reactions in the manufacture of electronic devices.


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