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Person

Gilbert N. Lewis

A man with neatly combed dark hair, wearing round glasses, a white shirt, a brown tie, and a dark suit jacket, stands against a dark background.

American physical chemist (1875–1946) who in 1916 proposed that a chemical bond was a pair of shared electrons, and drew the dot diagrams still used in introductory chemistry. He coined the term covalent bond, defined acids and bases in terms of electron-pair donation, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize forty-one times without ever winning. He died alone in his Berkeley laboratory, possibly of a heart attack, possibly of cyanide.

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