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from the issue of April 17, 2008
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Chemistry celebrates 125 years on campus
BY SARA GILLIAM, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Chemistry is celebrating a 125th anniversary and a laundry list of program firsts.
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| | | IN THE LAB - Chemistry students conduct an experiment in an Avery Hall lab in this photo taken in May 1953.
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In 1887, the department hired Rachel Lloyd, the first woman chemistry professor in the world. Lloyd was also the first woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry.
The first two women to join the American Chemical Society were from the University of Nebraska chemistry department. The first joined in 1891.
And, the department offered the first graduate program of any kind west of the Mississippi River. The first master's degree was awarded in 1888.
Eras in the department's history loosely correlate to the different campus "homes" of the department. The first chemistry professor at NU was Hudson H. Nicholson, who oversaw the Chemistry Laboratory, which was the second building on campus. Nicholson was skilled at developing programs for the university, attracting stellar students to the department, and choosing relevant, Nebraska-focused projects for students to research.
Second to join the faculty was Lloyd, an analytical chemist with a doctorate from the University of Zurich.
"She was actually more qualified than Nicholson to be a professor, as she had a PhD," said Mark Griep, professor of chemistry and department historian. "Nicholson and Lloyd were a team - he was a promoter, he got the funding, and she was the high quality 'doer.' She had a fantastic personality and students loved her. He was the showman, and she had all the credibility that you normally associate with scientists."
In the department's early years, Nicholson traveled to Germany to visit prestigious chemistry programs in Heidelberg and Berlin. He returned to Lincoln filled with new ideas.
"The soil of northern Germany was really similar to the soil of Nebraska," Griep said. "Nicholson was a thinker, and he knew he needed to train chemists who would stay in the state. So he decided to build a sugar beet program here."
Lloyd trained students to analyze crops, and they grew sugar beets on the farm campus in Lincoln. Unfortunately for the chemists, over a 10-year period, there were enough rainy years that the clay soil of eastern Nebraska proved unsuitable for long-term sugar beet growth.
In 1916, the program moved to what is now Avery Hall which, at the time, was touted as having the most fireproof walls in the state. In a matter of years, the faculty doubled in size and began attracting "research stars," including Clifford S. Hamilton, whose studies on organic arsenic compounds and anti-malarials proved to be landmarks. He was a faculty member from the late 1920s through the 1960s, and he trained over 120 graduate students. One of the drugs he discovered, arsphenamine, remained in use until very recently.
Also during the Avery Hall era, the university was home to graduate student Donald J. Cram, who received his master's degree in 1942 and in 1987 shared the Nobel Prize with two others for their creative approaches to organic synthesis.
In time, the department outgrew its space in Avery - there were 31 full-time research faculty members in the program when the chemists relocated to Hamilton Hall in 1970. By the mid-1980s, a study released by the Science Citation Index found that publications from UNL Chemistry faculty had an impact factor (based on the number of citations divided by number of publications) among the top 30 in the world.
Today, the Chemistry department is in a transitional phase. Several long-term professors have recently retired and the department faces the challenge of hiring new individuals who will help guide Chemistry at UNL into the next evolution of the field.
"We're in a rebuilding mode, due to the landscape of chemistry today," said Jim Takacs, chair of the department. "There are a lot of changes, and there is a lot of uncertainty, but that brings with it a great deal of excitement and opportunity. What will be next big thing, where will the next breakthroughs be made? We're trying to chart what's going to be the best pathway for this department."
Takacs brings his colleagues together regularly to discuss changes in the field and how to position UNL as a major player in the future.
| | Chemistry's original home and second building on campus, the Chemical Laboratory.
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"We've got to keep moving," he said. "Research goes on. We're probing topics and trying to be among the first to chart the course for the field."
In the coming years, Takacs would like to see UNL chemists excel at scholarship in energy sciences, nanoscience and biological chemistry. More and more people want solutions to problems at the molecular level, Takacs said, whether that involves new herbicides, analysis of drug interactions, or investigations into early detection of disease. All of these molecular solutions are the traditional domain and strength of UNL's chemistry department.
"When I look at the last few years, when Vice Chancellor Prem Paul sends out updates on accomplishments at the university, Chemistry has consistently played a big role," Takacs said. "The sciences and research at this university are strong, and I believe our department is going to continue to be a major contributor."
In addition to research, student education and preparation is a hallmark of the department.
"The quality of training of graduate students is something we're really known for," Takacs said. "We have a very easy time placing students at their next position.
"Other universities recognize the quality and rigor of training we offer, and the capabilities of people who come out of this program."
For more information on the 125 year anniversary, go to http://chemistry.unl.edu/anniversary/index.shtml.
GO TO: ISSUE OF APRIL 17
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