A publication of
The Illinois-Iowa Section of
The American Chemical Society
 

If you have items to be included in the next newsletter, submit the items by by the 20^th of the month to the Secretary.
For the latest information about upcoming events, visit our website at http://membership.acs.org/I/ILIA/

ABSTRACT

Chemists in the early 20th century knew little about atoms, chemical bonds, or polymers. Much like today, chemists of that era also had the image problem that their contributions to society were often credited to others -- notably engineers then. The fledgling U.S. chemical enterprise was a narrowly focused chemical industry with little government or private support for research, and the pharmaceutical and organic chemical industries were non-existent. Extensive reliance on materials often produced by the lowest cost provider elsewhere in the world caused extreme hardships to both the public and U.S. businesses when cut off during World War I. Despite five years of misery, it is almost incredible that many in the U.S. populace wanted to go back to pre-war business dealings after that conflict ended! A great debate raged in 1919 among both chemists and the public about whether the U.S. chemical industry should, or was even capable of expanding to produce dyes, pharmaceuticals, and other organic materials. Many Americans apparently thought that German and European chemists had found the alchemist's "philosophers stone" and thus were the only ones who could make quality organic chemicals!

But a fiercely patriotic American born chemist led the citizenry who thought the pre-war business approach was foolhardy. He crusaded against the senseless and oafish "global economy" ideas of that era via editorials, speeches, and frequent personal lobbying in Congress to get legal protections from UNFAIR practices by foreign entities and cartels such as I. G. Farben. Thus, the U.S. chemical industry experienced an explosive 1918-40 expansion to become Wall Street's huge recession proof darling! By 1939 the image of chemists and chemistry was so high that Dupont unveiled its famous slogan "Better Things for better Living through Chemistry!" A spell-binding speaker, this chemist had put chemistry "on the map" of the public's mind. I suspect that few post 1950's chemists know that when he received a 1932 non-ACS national gold medal award at a New York gala, the committee cited him as "the one chemist who had the greatest influence on the expansion and development of our chemical industries and establishment of the chemical independence of the United States." However, this chemist's amazing achievements (after starting out as an unappreciated young professor with a bad department head) as well as the 1920-40 creation of huge U.S. chemical industry might never have occurred except for SEVEN UNFORESEEN TWISTS OF FATE.

This presentation describes those fateful events that profoundly affected both the career of that patriotic chemist as well as the development of the U.S. chemical industries that employ almost a million workers. It also provides some useful history lessons for 21st century chemists. Although this former ACS President was arguably one of the 5 most important 20th century American born chemists, his name is not among the 250 listed in the ACS Luminaries of the Chemical Sciences or C&EN's 75 Great Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise. At the end of the presentation one could say, like the famous old radio news commentator Paul Harvey, "Now you know the rest of the story!"

Categories: History of Chemistry, Education, Professional Relations, Chemical Industry, General Science

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Dr. Don Hicks received his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry with honors from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) in 1965. After some ho-hum chemistry research and teaching 16,000 students, he recently retired from Georgia State University. Between tennis matches, he is now, and has been active in public outreach during his spare time for 40 years. More than 200 invited speeches have been made to non-technical audiences as large as 2000 persons, with 6 appearances on TV. Technical audiences have heard a hundred of his invited seminars, and he was a featured speaker in three recent History of Chemistry symposia. He is a member of several honor societies and nine recognitions (eight for teaching) in professional award competitions include the very first OHAUS award (1972) given for design of a college chemistry course and the 1996 Georgia State University Outstanding Teacher Award. Most of the pedagogy promoted by ACS and NSF since 1995 as the model for systemic reform of college chemistry teaching, including microscale techniques, was invented in his lab thirty five years ago. He has authored or coauthored 48 grants, devised experiments and written lab manuals for several semester length real world project chemistry lab courses, and worked for most of his career on NSF supported science education projects including some that involved large multi-university consortia. Working at the high school-college interface was a significant career effort. ACS service includes a current 15 year term on the Council and past work on several national committees. Two Outstanding Service Awards were received from the Georgia Section of ACS. Georgia's old Savannah Pulp & Paper Lab became a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2001 due to efforts of a committee he chaired. Nineteen presentations have been made on ACS lecture tours. July 2006

UPCOMING MEETINGS

October Meeting: Monday, October 13, 2008 at St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA;
Speaker: Dr. Peter J. Reilly;
Topic: Working in the Tropics on Food Problems  

NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK

2008 National Chemistry Week
"Having a Ball with Chemistry"
October 19 25, 2008

The theme of National Chemistry Week (NCW) 2008 is the Olympics. Projects related to your favorite sport or sporting equipment could involve many science disciplines including biology, physics, and math. One way to make this an amazing National Chemistry Week would be to have your own "Chemistry Olympics". More information about NCW, including ideas for activities, can be found at http://chemistry.org/ncw.

The Illinois-Iowa section has once again allocated money to help support your fun-filled NCW activities. Please submit your request to Audra Goach Sostarecz (asostarecz@monm.edu ) or any of the other executive committee members (http://membership.acs.org/I/ILIA/) by September 22. The request should include a description of the activity, a proposed budget, and your contact information.

We ask that you document any NCW activities you are involved in, even if they are not funded by the section. Please send a description of the event along with pictures to Audra Goach Sostarecz at Monmouth College (asostarecz@monm.edu ).

Go to http://chemistry.org/ncw for more information about the NCW poster contest.

CALL FOR OFFICERS

It is time to elect the 2009 officers for the Illinois-Iowa Section of the ACS. If you are interested in serving, please contact Dr. Brian Mundell (brian@bio-researchprod.com) or Dr. Mel Peterson (MelPeterson@augustana.edu).

NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS

Outstanding High School Teacher

Please submit the following information by mail to Dr. Mary Ellen Biggin, Augustana College, 639 38th Street, Rock Island, IL 61201 or by email to maryellenbiggin@augustana.edu by September 30, 2008.

• Your name, address, phone number, and email address
• The nominee's name, address, phone number, and email address
• brief description (approximately 25 words) of the nominee's accomplishments.

The nominee must be actively engaged in the teaching of chemistry in a high school (grades 9 -12).

Salutes to Excellence

Salutes to Excellence is an award program that gives ACS members an opportunity to recognize the positive impact on everyday life made by a practitioner of chemistry, a product of chemistry, or a place of importance in chemistry within their community. A central part of the event is the presentation of a commemorative plaque, furnished by the Office of Community Activities (OCA), for the honoree(s) for the chemistry achievement being honored. The local section is now searching for nominees for this prestigious award for 2008.

Please submit the following information by mail to Dr. Mary Ellen Biggin, Augustana College, 639 38th Street, Rock Island, IL 61201 or by email to maryellenbiggin@augustana.edu by November 1, 2008.

• Your name, address, phone number, and email address
• The nominee's name/company name/product name/location
• A brief description (approximately 100 words) of the positive impact over several years that this product, practitioner, or place of importance in/of chemistry has had on the local section and the cause of chemistry

The nominee should be a current section member in good standing, a product invented by a person/company in the section, or a location within the section.

EASTERN IOWA LABORATORY SYMPOSIUM

The Eastern Iowa Laboratory Symposium will be held on October 23, 2008 at Stanley Auditorium in Muscatine, IA. For further information please contact Dr. Edward F. Askew, 2552 155th Street, Muscatine, IA 52761, 563-263-3884, efaskew@hotmail.com.

DONALD KISER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

The 2008 winner of the scholarship is Kelly Holt, who graduated from Alwood High School in Woodhull, IL. She will attend Harvard University and plans to study chemical engineering.

The scholarship review committee for 2008 (George Bailey, Art Serianz, Rich Craddick, and Mary Ellen Biggin) reviewed 24 applications.

JOB POSTINGS LINK

We now have a job postings link on our homepage (http://membership.acs.org/I/ILIA/). If you have job openings that you would like to post, please send them to Dr. Mary Ellen Biggin (maryellenbiggin@augustana.edu).