Lauri Vaska was born on May 7, 1925, and died on November 15, 2015.

He was an American chemist who has made noteworthy contributions to organometallic chemistry.

Lauri was born in Rakvere.

Lauri was educated at the Baltic University in Hamburg, Germany (1946) and subsequently at the University of Göttingen (1946 to 1949) where he received his Vordiplom (equivalent to the American B.S. degree).

He pursued his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Texas in the United States (1952 to 1956).

Lauri was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University (1956 to 1957) where he conducted research on magnetochemistry.

In 1957, Lauri took a position as Fellow at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, where he remained until 1964.

During that time, the Mellon Institute, housed a number of future chemical luminaries, including Paul Lauterbur and R. Bruce King.

Lauri moved as an associate professor to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, where, since 1990, he remains Professor Emeritus of Chemistry.

His brother Vootele Vaska is a philosopher.

Lauri passed away in Basking Ridge, New Jersey in 2015, aged 90.