Background
Hudson was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1881. He was the son of William James and Maude Celestia Wilson Hudson. When Claude was three, the family settled in Mobile, Ala. , where his father was involved in a phosphate mining business.
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Claude Silbert Hudson
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After graduating from the local University Military School, Hudson enrolled at Princeton University to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry, but he became interested in science after enjoying a chemistry course taught by L. W. McCay.
Following completion of the B. S. degree in 1901, Hudson obtained a fellowship that enabled him to do graduate work. Since he was unable to study his preferred subject, physical chemistry, a new discipline not taught at Princeton, Hudson worked under E. H. Loomis in chemical physics. While purifying a sample of lactose (milk sugar) for William F. Magie, he observed the phenomenon of mutarotation. His inability to find a satisfactory explanation for this change in rotation of polarized light observed when crystals of lactose are dissolved in water led him to a lifelong career in the study of sugar chemistry. Hudson received his M. S. in 1902.
At Princeton he was examined for the Ph. D. in physics and was granted the degree magna cum laude.
Career
He set out for Germany, the center of research in physical chemistry. After a few months in Göttingen with Walther Nernst he learned that because of financial reverses in his father's business he would be able to stay only one year in Germany. He decided to spend the second term in Berlin with J. H. van't Hoff. Before leaving Göttingen, he did complete, in Gustav Tamman's laboratory, a study of the reversible solubility of nicotine in water. In Berlin, Hudson met A. A. Noyes, who secured a research assistantship (1903 - 1904) for him at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The next year he served as instructor of physics at Princeton, and from 1905 to 1907 he had a similar position at the University of Illinois.
In 1907 his low salary at Illinois led Hudson to consider joining his father's business, but he was then offered a position as physicist with the United States Geological Survey. Hudson, however, soon lost his job at the Geological Survey because of the agency's lack of funds. He then worked briefly as an analyst with the Barber Asphalt Company in Perth Amboy, N. J. , before returning to Washington as an analyst in the Bureau of Chemistry, where Harvey Wiley was carrying out studies on the safety of food additives (the "poison squad studies"). Hudson finished his assigned work in urine analyses by midafternoon each day, and Wiley permitted him to spend the remaining time on sugar studies. He published his milestone theoretical paper on optical rotation of sugars in 1909.
When tensions between Wiley and Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson led to the termination of the poison squad experiments, Hudson was permitted to undertake studies on the action of the enzyme invertase on the hydrolysis of sucrose (common sugar). In 1912 Wiley resigned and was succeeded by Carl Alsberg, who created a carbohydrate laboratory with Hudson in charge. During World War I, when rare sugars needed for synthetic and theoretical studies (including xylose, arabinose, and raffinose) were no longer available from Germany, Hudson's laboratory developed procedures for their preparation. Because of his familiarity with adsorbent charcoal, used in the purification of sugars, Hudson was asked to assist in the development of adsorbent charcoal suitable for use in gas masks. At the end of the war he became an independent chemical consultant but in 1923 returned to government service in the Bureau of Standards.
In 1929 he transferred to the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public Health Service (later a part of the National Institutes of Health), remaining there until his retirement in 1951. He was in poor health during his later years but still continued an active life. Hudson's scientific career was directed toward the study of those structural characteristics of sugar molecules that are responsible for their observed properties – particularly the optical rotation. By the preparation and study of numerous rare sugars and sugar derivatives he sought to elucidate not only optical rotation but also such structural characteristics as ring size and chemical reactivity.
Early in his career he directed his attention toward the anomeric carbon atom (the atom responsible for reducing properties, that is, the ability to convert silver or copper compounds to metallic silver or the lower oxide of copper). His 1909 paper offered a clue to the rotational influence of several optical centers of the sugar molecule. These rules, which were further amplified in 1931, were used to predict, with striking accuracy, the rotation of a number of then unknown sugars and sugar derivatives.
In 1910 Hudson formulated his "lactone rule, " which showed that while the rotation of open-chain aldonic acids is very small, the rotation of their lactonic acids is very large on account of the lactone ring. He also showed the effect of orientation of the ring. A side effect of the work on rules the degradative realm, Hudson developed the application of periodate oxidation to the opening of sugar rings in order to establish their size.
He died in Washington, D. C.
Achievements
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Hudson's work on sugars ranks in importance with that of Emil Fischer and Norman Haworth for its insightful and innovative character. He was unique for his introduction of a physical chemical approach in a field formerly dominated by classical organic chemists. Also important was his role in training carbohydrate chemists. He was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1942 and the Willard Gibbs Award in 1929. He is also the namesake of the Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry given by the American Chemical Society.
Membership
He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1927.
Personality
Hudson was a hard-driving person who expected high-level performance from his associates. This characteristic was combined with great personal charm and an unorthodox life-style. He was a brilliant raconteur and a charming person in a social setting.
Connections
At Urbana, in 1906, he met and married Alice Abbott. They had three children before the marriage ended in divorce, as did two subsequent marriages, to Olive G. Gale and Mabel Felix Hazard. Hudson's fourth marriage was in 1942 to Erin Gilmer Jones, a widow who had been his childhood sweetheart.
References
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Born
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Died
February 27, 1952 (aged 71) -
Resting place
Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey, United States -
Nationality
American