Donald Gaines

Don Gaines, an emeritus professor of chemistry at UW-Madison, passed away on May, 2, 2026

Clark Landis prepared the professional summary below.

In a 33-year career as a professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Don enthusiastically adopted many roles, including researcher, administrator, instructor of students ranging from Freshman to PhD levels, and local expert on chemical safety.  Much of his research concerned boron hydrides, a class of molecules distinguished by unique structures and often described as “highly energetic.”  As noted by Don, their “investigations were occasionally accompanied by fires and explosions, but never by serious accident”.  Don’s research group created, for the first time, routes to many new metallaborane clusters, boron hydrides in which some of the boron atoms were replaced by other atoms such as beryllium, silicon, lead, and ruthenium.  As these methods became reliable, the Gaines group pioneered a mechanistic understanding of how atoms in boron hydrides and metallaboranes move and change positions.  Many of these studies relied on creative use of emerging spectroscopic techniques such as multidimensional 11B NMR and sophisticated use of isotopes as labels.  In 1990, the strong international reputation established by Don’s research was recognized by the Boron USA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Boron Science.  He contributed to the growing strength of interdisciplinary research on campus through his participation in materials science efforts centered on the growth and characterization of solids. When the Army decommissioned its boron hydride propellant stocks, Don served as an expert consultant on this dangerous work. Don directed the research of 8 postdoctoral students, 20 doctoral students, 10 masters students, and 11 undergraduate students.