Chemistry
Chemistry
3032 ■ AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Attn: Department of Diversity Programs
1155 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202)872-6250
Free: 800-227-5558
Fax: (202)776-8003 E-mail: scholars@acs.org
Web Site: http://www.chemistry.org/scholars
To provide financial assistance to underrepresented minority students with a strong interest in chemistry and a desire to prepare for a career in a chemically-related science.
Title of Award: American Chemical Society Scholars Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical;
Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Materials research/science; Toxicology Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Approximately 100 new awards are granted each year. Funds Available: The maximum stipend is $2,500 for the freshman year in college or $3,000 per year for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to 1) college-bound high school seniors; 2) college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors enrolled full time at an accredited college or university; 3) community college graduates and transfer students who plan to study for a bachelor's degree; and 4) community college freshmen. Applicants must be African American, Hispanic/Latino, or American Indian. They must be majoring or planning to major in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, or other chemically-related fields, such as environmental science, materials science, or toxicology, and planning to prepare for a career in the chemical sciences or chemical technology. Students planning careers in medicine or pharmacy are not eligible. U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status is required. Selection is based on academic merit (GPA of 3.0 or higher) and financial need. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: This program was established in 1994.
3033 ■ AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Attn: Education Division
1155 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202)872-4380
Free: 800-227-5558
E-mail: r_rasheed@acs.org
Web Site: http://www.chemistry.org/education/SEED.html
To provide financial assistance for college to high school students who participated in the American Chemical Society's Project SEED: Summer Education Experience for the Disadvantaged.
Title of Award: Project SEED Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Materials research/science Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 29 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: Stipends up to $5,000 per year are available. Duration: 1 year; nonrenewable.
Eligibility Requirements: Applicants for Project SEED must have completed the junior or senior year in high school, live within commuting distance of a sponsoring institution, have completed a course in high school chemistry, and come from an economically disadvantaged family. The standards for economic disadvantage follow federal poverty guidelines for family size, but the maximum family income is $32,000 except in cases where other factors are present that may deter a student from considering a career in science; family income may be up to $44,000 if the student is a member of an ethnic group underrepresented in the sciences (African American, Hispanic, American Indian), if the parents have not attended college, or if the family is single-parent or very large. Participants in the Project SEED program are eligible to apply for these scholarships during their senior year in high school if they plan to major in college in a chemical science or engineering field, such as chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry, materials science, or another closely-related field. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year.
3034 ■ AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
Attn: Coordinator, Scholarship Program
1155 15th Street, N.W., Suite 1004
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202)467-5081
Free: 800-424-8666
Fax: (202)467-5085
E-mail: info@acb.org
Web Site: http://www.acb.org
To provide financial assistance to blind students who are working on an undergraduate or graduate degree in science at an accredited college or university.
Title of Award: Dr. S. Bradley Burson Memorial Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Engineering; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000. In addition, the winner receives a Kurzweil-1000 Reading System. Duration: 1 year.Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to legally blind undergraduate or graduate students majoring in the "hard" sciences (i.e., biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering, but not computer science) in college. They must be U.S. citizens. In addition to letters of recommendation and copies of academic transcripts, applications must include an autobiographical sketch. A cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher is generally required. Selection is based on demonstrated academic record, involvement in extracurricular and civic activities, and academic objectives. The severity of the applicant's visual impairment and his/her study methods are also taken into account. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: Scholarship winners are expected to be present at the council's annual conference; the council will cover all reasonable expenses connected with convention attendance.
3035 ■ AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY
Attn: Scholarship Coordinator
555 North Kensington Avenue
La Grange Park, IL 60526-5592
Tel: (708)352-6611
Fax: (708)352-0499
E-mail: outreach@ans.org
Web Site: http://www.ans.org/honors/scholarships
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in preparing for a career in nuclear science.
Title of Award: James R. Vogt Radiochemistry Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Nuclear science Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College, Graduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,000 for undergraduate students or $3,000 for graduate students. Duration: 1 year; nonrenewable.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to juniors, seniors, and first-year graduate students who are enrolled in or proposing to undertake research in radio-analytical chemistry, analytical chemistry, or analytical applications of nuclear science. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and able to demonstrate academic achievement. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3036 ■ AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Attn: SMART Defense Scholarship Program
1818 N Street, N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036-2479
Tel: (202)331-3516
Fax: (202)265-8504
E-mail: smart@asee.org
Web Site: http://www.asee.org/resources/fellowships/smart/index.cfm
To provide scholarship/loans to upper-division and graduate students in areas of science, mathematics, and engineering that are of interest to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Title of Award: Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Architecture, Naval; Behavioral sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Earth sciences; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Engineering, Ocean; Geosciences; Materials research/science; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Oceanography; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College, Graduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 36 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: The program provides full payment of tuition, fees, room, board, and other normal educational expenses at the recipient's institution. A book allowance of $1,000 per year is also provided. This is a scholarship/loan program; recipients must agree to serve as a civilian employee of the Department of Defense in a science and engineering position. If they fail to fulfill that service obligation, they must reimburse the federal government for all funds they received. Duration: Up to 24 months.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to upper-division and graduate students working on an undergraduate or graduate degree in any of the following fields: aeronautical and astronautical engineering; biosciences; chemical engineering; chemistry; civil engineering; cognitive, neural, and behavioral sciences; computer and computational sciences; electrical engineering; geosciences, including terrain, water, and air; materials science and engineering; mathematics; mechanical engineering; naval architecture and ocean engineering; oceanography; or physics. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Selection is based on academic records, personal statements, letters of recommendation, and GRE scores. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: This program, established in 2005, is sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Information Systems Agency, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
3037 ■ APPALACHIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION
Attn: Director of Programs
210 Center Street
Berea, KY 40403
Tel: (859)986-4584
Fax: (859)986-9549
E-mail: kathrynb@acaweb.org
Web Site: http://www.acaweb.org
To provide financial assistance to upper-division students majoring in biology, chemistry, or mathematics at colleges and universities that are members of the Appalachian College Association (ACA) who plan to become teachers.
Title of Award: Robert Noyce Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Education; Mathematics and mathematical sciences Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 12 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $7,500 per year. Recipients must be willing to sign a promissory note with a commitment to teach in a high-need middle or high school for 2 years for every year of the scholarship. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed 1 additional year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time students entering their junior or senior year at ACA member institutions with a major in biology, chemistry, or mathematics and plans to earn a teaching license. Applicants must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit a 500-word essay describing their interest in becoming a 6-12 teacher; their commitment to the Appalachian region, including the impact they hope to have as a teacher; and actual and planned progress toward becoming certified. U.S. citizenship is required. Preference is given to graduates of high schools in the Appalachian region and to applicants who express a desire to teach in a high-need middle or high school, especially schools in central Appalachia. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: Funding for this program is provided by the National Science Foundation. The ACA includes member institutions in Kentucky (Alice Lloyd College, Berea College, Campbellsville University, University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky Christian University, Lindsey Wilson College, Pikeville College, and Union College), North Carolina (Brevard College, Lees-McRae College, Mars Hill College, Montreat College, and Warren Wilson College), Tennessee (Bryan College, Carson-Newman College, King College, Lee University, Lincoln Memorial University, Maryville College, Milligan College, Tennessee Wesleyan College, Tusculum College, and University of the South), Virginia (Bluefield College, Emery & Henry College, Ferrum College, and Virginia Intermont College), and West Virginia (Alderson-Broaddus College, Bethany College, Davis & Elkins College, Ohio Valley University, University of Charleston, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Wheeling Jesuit University).
3038 ■ ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Attn: Financial Aid Division
114 East Capitol Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72201-3818
Tel: (501)371-2050
Free: 800-54-STUDY
Fax: (501)371-2001
E-mail: finaid@adhe.arknet.edu
Web Site: http://www.starark.com
To provide scholarship/loans to college students in Arkansas who are interested in preparing for a teaching career in an approved subject or geographic shortage area.
Title of Award: Arkansas State Teacher Assistance Resource (STAR) Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Earth sciences; Education; Education, Secondary; Education,
Special; Geosciences; Linguistics; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Master's, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 42 of these scholarship/loans were approved. Funds Available: The award is $3,000 per year for students who agree to teach in either a geographic teacher shortage area or a subject teacher shortage area. For students who agree to teach in both a geographic shortage area and a subject shortage area, the award is $6,000 per year. This is a scholarship/loan program. Recipients must teach in an Arkansas geographic or subject shortage area for 1 year for each year of support they receive. If they fail to complete that teaching obligation, they must repay all funds received. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed for 1 additional year if the recipient is enrolled in a 4-year teacher education program or 2 additional years if enrolled in a 5-year teacher education program. Renewal requires that the recipient maintain a GPA of 2.75 or higher and complete 24 semester hours as an undergraduate or 18 semester hours as a graduate student.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to Arkansas residents who are full-time students enrolled 1) at a 4-year public or private college or university in the state with an approved teacher education program; 2) in an associate of arts in teaching program; or 3) in an master of arts in teaching program. Applicants must have a GPA of 2.75 or higher and be entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year (or be in a master's degree program). They must be willing to teach in a public school located in a geographic area of Arkansas designated as having a critical shortage of teachers or in a subject matter area designated as having a critical shortage of teachers. Applicants must have completed their freshman year at an accredited Arkansas public or private college or university in a major field of study leading to secondary teacher certification in 1 of the shortage areas. U.S. citizenship is required. Deadline for Receipt: May of each year. Additional Information: This program was established in 2004 as a replacement for the former Arkansas Emergency Secondary Education Loan Program. Recently, the subject areas designated as having a critical shortage of teachers were foreign language, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, physical science, earth science, and special education. For a list of geographic areas of Arkansas that are designated as having a critical shortage of teachers, contact the Department of Higher Education. The State Teacher Assistance Resource (STAR) program also provides that teachers who received federal student loans may have those loans repaid 1) at the rate of $3,000 per year if they teach a subject area in Arkansas that is designated as a shortage area or if they teach in a geographic area of the state with a shortage of teachers, or 2) at the rate of $6,000 per year if they teach a shortage subject area in a shortage geographic area. Students may not, however, participate in both the scholarship/loan program and the federal loan repayment program.
3039 ■ ASSOCIATION FOR IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY
Attn: AIST Foundation
186 Thorn Hill Road
Warrendale, PA 15086-7528
Tel: (724)776-6040
Fax: (724)776-1880
E-mail: lwharrey@aist.org
Web Site: http://www.aist.org/foundation/scholarships.htm
To provide financial assistance for college study of engineering to Canadians who are children of members of the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).
Title of Award: David H. Samson Canadian Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering; Geology; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $US2,000. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed for up to 3 additional years.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to the children (natural, adopted, or ward) of Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who are members of the association. Applicants must have been accepted in an eligible full-time course of study of engineering at an accredited Canadian university. If no engineering student applies, the award may be made to an eligible student planning to major in chemistry, geology, mathematics, or physics. The scholarship may also be awarded to a student entering a community college if there is no eligible applicant entering an accredited university. The committee may also award the scholarship to a previous applicant entering the second or third year at a Canadian university or community college if there is no eligible applicant entering the first year. Selection is based on academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and the student's written statements; financial need is not considered. Deadline for Receipt: June of each year. Additional Information: The AIST was formed in 2004 by the merger of the Iron and Steel Society (ISS) and the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers (AISE). Information is also available from Robert Kneale, AIST Northern Member Chapter, P.O. Box 1734, Cambridge, Ontario N1R 7G8, Canada.
3040 ■ ASSOCIATION FOR IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY-NORTHWEST CHAPTER
c/o Gerardo L. Giraldo, Secretary-Treasurer
Nucor Steel Seattle, Inc.
Washington Steel Division
2424 S.W. Andover Street
Seattle, WA 98106-1100
Tel: (206)933-2245
Fax: (206)933-2207
E-mail: gerry.giraldo@nucor-seattle.com
Web Site: http://www.aist.org/chapters/mc_pittsburgh_scholar_guidelines.htm
To provide financial assistance to family of members of the Northwest Chapter of the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) who are interested in studying engineering in college.
Title of Award: Northwest Chapter AIST Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Business; Chemistry; Engineering; Manufacturing; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Metallurgy; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 2 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to children, grandchildren, spouses, or nieces/nephews of chapter members who are high school seniors planning to attend an accredited 4-year college or university. Applicants must intend to study engineering; if there are no applicants in engineering, the award may be given to a student majoring in chemistry, mathematics, metallurgy, or physics, or to a student showing an interest in preparing for a career in the iron and steel industry. Along with their application, they must submit a 500-word essay on 1 of the following topics: 1) an accomplishment they have achieved while they have been a student, why they were successful, and how their success will influence their future plans as an engineer or an engineer in the steel industry; 2) their strengths and interests and how they will apply their skills to a career in the steel industry or as an engineer; or 3) the challenges that face the steel industry and the opportunities for graduates to improve the success of companies within the industry. Financial need is not considered in the selection process. Deadline for Receipt: June of each year. Additional Information: The AIST was formed in 2004 by the merger of the Iron and Steel Society (ISS) and the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers (AISE). The Northwest Chapter serves Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
3041 ■ ASSOCIATION FOR IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY-OHIO VALLEY CHAPTER
c/o Jeff McKain, Scholarship Chair
Xtek, Inc.
11451 Reading Road
Cincinnati, OH 45241
Tel: (513)733-7843; (999)332-XTEK
Fax: (513)733-7939
E-mail: jeff.mckain@xtek.com
Web Site: http://www.aist.org/chapters/ohiovalley_scholarship.htm
To provide financial assistance for college to student members and children of members of the Ohio Valley Chapter of the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).
Title of Award: Ohio Valley Chapter AIST Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Earth sciences; Engineering; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Geosciences; Information science and technology; Metallurgy; Physical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Up to 2 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed up to 3 additional years provided the recipient remains enrolled full time and maintains a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to high school seniors and college students who are either 1) children of Ohio Valley Chapter AIST members, or 2) student AIST members. Applicants must be accepted at, planning to attend, or currently enrolled at an accredited college or university with a major in biology, chemistry, computer programming, computer technology, electrical engineering, engineering, engineering technology, environmental engineering, environmental science, information systems technology, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, microbiology, physical science, physics, or other field approved by the scholarship committee. Along with their application, they must submit a 500-word essay on the reasons for their interests and reasons for working on a degree in their field of study, career goals and objectives, and extracurricular activities and their benefits. Selection is based on overall academic achievement (especially in mathematics and science), the essay, and extracurricular activities. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: The AIST was formed in 2004 by the merger of the Iron and Steel Society (ISS) and the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers (AISE). This program was established by the former Ohio Valley District Section of AISE. The Ohio Valley Chapter covers Indiana (except for the northwestern portion), all of Kentucky, western Tennessee, and portions of southern Ohio.
3042 ■ ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN GEOSCIENTISTS
Attn: AWG Foundation
P.O. Box 30645
Lincoln, NE 68503-0645
E-mail: awgscholarship@yahoo.com
Web Site: http://www.awg.org/eas/minority.html
To provide financial assistance to minority women who are interested in working on an undergraduate degree in the geosciences.
Title of Award: Association for Women Geoscientists Minority Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Earth sciences; Education; Geology; Geosciences; Hydrology; Meteorology; Oceanography Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 or more each year. Funds Available: A total of $5,000 is available for this program each year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to women who are African American, Hispanic, or Native American (including Eskimo, Hawaiian, Samoan, or American Indian). Applicants must be full-time students working on, or planning to work on, an undergraduate degree in the geosciences (including geology, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrology, meteorology, physical oceanography, planetary geology, or earth science education). They must submit a 500-word essay on why they have chosen to major in the geosciences and their career goals, 2 letters of recommendation, high school and/or college transcripts, and SAT or ACT scores. Financial need is not considered in the selection process. Deadline for Receipt: May of each year. Additional Information: This program, first offered in 2004, is supported by ExxonMobil Foundation.
3043 ■ ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE-SEATTLE CHAPTER
c/o Fran Solomon, Scholarship Committee Chair
5805 16th Avenue, N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: (206)522-6441 E-mail: fran.solomon@metrokc.gov
Web Site: http://www.scn.org/awis/undergraduate_scholarship.htm
To provide financial assistance to women undergraduates from any state majoring in science, mathematics, or engineering at colleges and universities in western Washington.
Title of Award: AWIS Seattle Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Biochemistry; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Engineering; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Geology; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Pharmaceutical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 11 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: Stipends range from $1,000 to $1,500. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to women from any state entering their junior or senior year at a 4-year college or university in western Washington. Applicants must have a declared major in science (e.g., biological sciences, environmental science, biochemistry, chemistry, pharmacy, geology, computer science, physics), mathematics, or engineering. Along with their application, they must submit essays on the events that led to their choice of a major, their current career plans and long-term goals, and their volunteer and community activities. Financial need is considered in the selection process. At least 1 scholarship is reserved for a woman from a group that is underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering careers, including Native American Indians and Alaska Natives, Black/African Americans, Mexican Americans/Chicanas/Latinas, Native Pacific Islanders (Polynesians, Melanesians, and Micronesians), and women with disabilities. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: This program includes the following named awards: the Virginia Badger Scholarship, the Angela Paez Memorial Scholarship, and the Fran Solomon Scholarship. Support for the program is provided by several sponsors, including the American Chemical Society, Iota Sigma Pi, Rosetta Inpharmatics, and ZymoGenetics, Inc.
3044 ■ H. FLETCHER BROWN TRUST
PNC Bank Delaware
Attn: Donald W. Davis
222 Delaware Avenue, 16th Floor
Wilmington, DE 19899
Tel: (302)429-2827
Fax: (302)429-5658
E-mail: Robbie.testa@pncadvisors.com
To provide financial assistance to residents of Delaware who are interested in studying engineering, chemistry, medicine, dentistry, or law.
Title of Award: H. Fletcher Brown Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Dentistry; Engineering; Law; Medicine; Medicine, Osteopathic Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Professional, Undergraduate Funds Available: The amount of the scholarship is determined by the scholarship committee and is awarded in installments over the length of study. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed if the recipient maintains a GPA of 2.5 or higher and continues to be worthy of and eligible for the award.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to Delaware residents who were born in Delaware, are either high school seniors entering the first year of college or college seniors entering the first year of graduate school, are of good moral character, and need financial assistance from sources outside their family. Applicants must have combined mathematics and verbal SAT scores of 1000 or higher, rank in the upper 20% of their class, and come from a family whose income is less than $75,000. Their proposed fields of study must be engineering, chemistry, medicine (for an M.D. or D.O. degree only), dentistry, or law. Finalists are interviewed. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year.
3045 ■ BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN OF VIRGINIA
Attn: Virginia BPW Foundation
P.O. Box 4842
McLean, VA 22103-4842
Web Site: http://www.bpwva.org/Foundation.shtml
To provide financial assistance to women in Virginia who are interested in working on a bachelor's or advanced degree in science or technology.
Title of Award: Women in Science and Technology Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Actuarial science; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Dentistry; Engineering; Engineering, Biomedical; Insurance and insurance-related fields; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Medicine; Physics; Science; Technology Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: At least 1 each year. Funds Available: Stipends range from $500 to $1,000 per year, depending on the need of the recipient; funds may be used for tuition, fees, books, transportation, living expenses, and dependent care. Duration: 1 year; recipients may reapply (but prior recipients are not given priority).
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to women who are at least 18 years of age, U.S. citizens, Virginia residents, accepted at or currently studying at a Virginia college or university, and working on a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in 1 of the following fields: actuarial science, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, computer science, dentistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine, physics, or a similar scientific or technical field. Applicants must have a definite plan to use their education in a scientific or technical profession. They must be able to demonstrate financial need. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: Recipients must complete their studies within 2 years.
3046 ■ COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER JACKSON
525 East Capitol Street, Suite 5B
Jackson, MS 39201
Tel: (601)974-6044
Fax: (601)974-6045
E-mail: info@cfgreaterjackson.org
Web Site: http://www.cfgreaterjackson.org
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students in Mississippi who are preparing for a career in the field of public works.
Title of Award: APWA Scholarship Fund Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Environmental science; Public administration Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 2 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time juniors and seniors at public universities in Mississippi who are preparing to enter the field of public works. Applicants must have graduated from a high school in Mississippi. Eligible majors include civil engineering, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, public administration, biology, or chemistry. Selection is based on merit and need. Deadline for Receipt: April of each year. Additional Information: This program, established in 2000, is sponsored by the Mississippi chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA).
3047 ■ CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS FOUNDATION, INC.
Attn: Director, Educational Programs
1720 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202)263-2836
Free: 800-784-2577
Fax: (202)775-0773
E-mail: spouses@cbcfinc.org
Web Site: http://www.cbcfinc.org
To provide financial assistance to minority and other undergraduate and graduate students who reside in a Congressional district represented by an African American and are interested in preparing for a health-related career.
Title of Award: Cheerios Brand Health Initiative Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Education, Physical; Engineering; Food service careers; Health care services; Medicine; Nursing Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: A stipend is awarded (amount not specified). Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to 1) minority and other graduating high school seniors planning to attend an accredited institution of higher education and 2) currently-enrolled full-time undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in good academic standing with a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Applicants must reside or attend school in a Congressional district represented by a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. They must be interested in preparing for a career in a medical, food services, or other health-related field, including pre-medicine, nursing, chemistry, biology, physical education, and engineering. Along with their application, they must submit a 500-word personal statement on 1) the field of study they intend to pursue and why they have chosen that field; 2) their interests, involvement in school activities, community and public service, hobbies, special talents, sports, and other highlight areas; and 3) any other experiences, skills, or qualifications they feel should be considered. They must also be able to document financial need. Deadline for Receipt: April of each year. Additional Information: The program was established in 1998 with support from General Mills, Inc.
3048 ■ DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
Attn: National Highway Institute, HNHI-20
4600 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203-1553
Tel: (703)235-0538
Fax: (703)235-0593
E-mail: transportationedu@fhwa.dot.gov
Web Site: http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/ddetfp.asp
To enable students to participate in research activities at facilities of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration in the Washington, D.C. area.
Title of Award: Eisenhower Grants for Research Fellowships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Economics; Engineering; Engineering, Civil; Geography; Information science and technology; Materials research/science; Operations research; Physics; Public administration; Statistics; Technology; Transportation; Urban affairs/design/planning Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College, Graduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 9 students participated in this program. Funds Available: Fellows receive full tuition and fees that relate to the academic credits for the approved research project and a monthly stipend of $1,450 for college seniors, $1,700 for master's students, or $2,000 for doctoral students. An allowance for travel to and from the DOT facility where the research is conducted is also provided, but selectees are responsible for their own housing accommodations. Faculty advisors are allowed 1 site review on projects over 6 months and 2 site reviews on projects over 9 months; travel and per diem are provided for those site reviews. Duration: Tenure is normally 3, 6, 9, or 12 months.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to 1) students in their junior year of a baccalaureate program who will complete their junior year before being awarded a fellowship; 2) students in their senior year of a baccalaureate program; and 3) students who have completed their baccalaureate degree and are enrolled in a program leading to a master's, Ph.D., or equivalent degree. Applicants must be U.S. citizens enrolled in an accredited U.S. institution of higher education working on a degree full time and planning to enter the transportation profession after completing their higher education. They select 1 or more projects from a current list of research projects underway at various DOT facilities; the research will be conducted with academic supervision provided by a faculty advisor from their home university (which grants academic credit for the research project) and with technical direction provided by the DOT staff. Specific requirements for the target projects vary; most require engineering backgrounds, but others involve transportation planning, information management, public administration, physics, materials science, statistical analysis, operations research, chemistry, economics, technology transfer, urban studies, geography, and urban and regional planning. The DOT encourages students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to apply for these grants. Selection is based on match of the student's qualifications with the proposed research project (including the student's ability to accomplish the project in the available time), recommendation letters regarding the nominee's qualifications to conduct the research, academic records (including class standing, GPA, and transcripts), and transportation work experience (if any) including the employer's endorsement. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year.
3049 ■ ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Attn: National Center for Environmental Research
Ariel Rios Building - 3500
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Tel: (202)343-9862
E-mail: barnwell.thomas@epa.gov
Web Site: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/P3
To provide funding to teams of undergraduate and graduate students interested in conducting a research project related to environmental sustainability.
Title of Award: P3 Award Program Area, Field, or Subject: Agricultural sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Energy-related areas; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Information science and technology; Public health; Transportation; Water resources Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Recently, 42 Phase I grants were awarded, of which 10 were selected to receive Phase II grants. Funds Available: Phase I grants are $10,000. Phase II grants are $75,000. Grants cover all direct and indirect costs; cost-sharing is not required. Duration: 1 year for Phase I and 1 additional year for Phase II.
Eligibility Requirements: This competition is open to teams of undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. colleges and universities who are interested in conducting a research project related to the 3 components of sustainability: people, prosperity, and the planet. Projects must address the causes, effects, extent, prevention, reduction, or elimination of air, water, or solid and hazardous waste pollution. Categories include agriculture (e.g., irrigation practices, reduction or elimination of pesticides); materials and chemicals (e.g., materials
conservation, green engineering, green chemistry, biotechnology, recovery and reuse of materials); energy (e.g., reduction in air emissions, energy conservation); information technology (e.g., delivery of and access to environmental performance, technical, educational, or public health information related environmental decision making); water (e.g., quality, quantity, conservation, availability, and access); or the built environment (e.g., environmental benefits through innovative green buildings, transportation, and mobility strategies, and smart growth as it results in reduced vehicle miles traveled or reduces storm water runoff). Student teams, with a faculty advisor (who serves as the principal investigator on the grant), submit designs for Phase I of the competition. Selection of grantees is based on the extent to which the proposed project achieves the outcomes of minimizing the use and generation of hazardous substances; utilizes resources and energy effectively and efficiently; and advances the goals of economic competitiveness, human health, and environmental protection for societal benefit. Recipients of Phase I grants are then invited to apply for additional funding through a Phase I grant. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: This program began in 2004. It is supported by a large number of organizations from industry, the nonprofit sector, and the federal government.
3050 ■ FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS
Attn: Senior Vice President, Scholarships
217 South Tryon Street
P.O. Box 34769
Charlotte, NC 28234-4769
Tel: (704)973-4535
Free: 800-973-7244
Fax: (704)973-4935
E-mail: jseymour@fftc.org
Web Site: http://www.fftc.org/scholarships
To provide financial assistance to college students in North and South Carolina who are preparing for a career in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Richard Goolsby Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Business administration; Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 or more each year. Funds Available: Stipends range up to $4,000 per year; Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school to be used for tuition, required fees, books, and supplies. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to residents of South Carolina, central North Carolina, or western North Carolina. Applicants must be entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year at a college or university in North or South Carolina and be majoring in a subject that will prepare them for a career in the plastics industry (e.g., chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, business administration). They must be enrolled full time. Along with their application, they must submit a 1- to 2-page statement explaining why they are applying for the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Selection is based on academic performance, demonstrated interest in the plastics industry, financial need, school and community involvement, and personal achievements. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year.
3051 ■ HISPANIC SCHOLARSHIP FUND INSTITUTE
1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 632
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202)296-0009
Fax: (202)296-3633
E-mail: info@hsfi.org
Web Site: http://www.hsfi.org/scholarships/energy.asp
To provide financial assistance to Hispanic undergraduate students majoring in designated business, engineering, and science fields related to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of environmental restoration and waste management.
Title of Award: Environmental Management Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Business administration; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Agricultural; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Mechanical; Engineering, Metallurgical; Engineering, Petroleum; Environmental science; Epidemiology; Geology; Hydrology; Management; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Radiology; Toxicology Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $3,000 per year for 4-year university students or $2,000 per year for community college students. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Hispanic background who have completed at least 12 undergraduate credits with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Applicants must be interested in preparing for a career supportive of the DOE goals of environmental restoration and waste management. Eligible academic majors are in the fields of business (management and system analysis), engineering (agricultural, chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, industrial, mechanical, metallurgical, nuclear, and petroleum), and science (applied math/physics, chemistry, computer science, ecology, environmental, epidemiology, geology, health physics, hydrology, radiochemistry, radio-ecology, and toxicology). Along with their application, they must submit a 2-page essay on 1) how their academic major, interests, and career goals correspond to environmental restoration and waste management issues; and 2) how their Hispanic background and family upbringing have influenced their academic and personal goals. Selection is based on the essay, academic record, academic plans and career goals, financial need, commitment to DOE's goal of environmental restoration and waste management, and a letter of recommendation. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: This program, which began in 1990, is sponsored by DOE's Office of Environmental Management. Recipients must enroll full time at a college or university in the United States.
3052 ■ INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Attn: Lucent Global Science Scholars Program
809 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017-3580
Tel: (212)984-5419
Fax: (212)984-5452
E-mail: sciencescholars@iie.org
Web Site: http://www.iie.org/programs/lucent
To provide financial assistance for college to high school students in the United States and university students in other designated countries who are interested in preparing for careers in information technology.
Title of Award: Lucent Global Science Scholars Program Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Information science and technology; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Recently, 32 students from foreign countries (5 from China, 1 from Hong Kong, and 2 from each of the other countries) and 28 from the United States received these scholarships. Funds Available: The stipend is $5,000 per year. Duration: 1 year; nonrenewable.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to high school seniors in the United States and first-year university students in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Students from the United States must have a GPA of 3.6 or higher. Eligible majors include applied physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, information science and technology, mathematics and applied mathematics, and physics. Selection is based on a demonstrated record of distinction in science and mathematics and a desire to prepare for a career in information technology. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year for students from the United States; March of each year for students from other countries. Additional Information: This program, established in 1999, is funded by Lucent Technologies. Students are offered internships at Lucent's research and development and manufacturing facilities in their own countries during the summer following their freshman year in the United States or the sophomore year in other countries.
3053 ■ IOTA SIGMA PI
c/o National Director for Student Awards
Vicki H. Grassian
University of Iowa
Department of Chemistry
Iowa City, IA 52242
Tel: (319)335-1392
Fax: (319)335-1270
E-mail: vicki-grassian@uiowa.edu
Web Site: http://www.iotasigmapi.info/ISPstudentawards/ISPstudentawards.htm
To provide financial assistance to women undergraduates who have achieved excellence in the study of chemistry or biochemistry.
Title of Award: Gladys Anderson Emerson Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,000. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: The nominee must be a female chemistry or biochemistry student who has attained at least junior standing but has at least 1 semester of work to complete. Both the nominator and the nominee must be members of Iota Sigma Pi, although students who are not members but wish to apply for the scholarship may be made members by National Council action. Selection is based on transcripts; a list of all academic honors and professional memberships; a short essay by the nominee describing herself, her goals in chemistry, any hobbies or talents, and her financial need; and letters of recommendation. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: This scholarship was first awarded in 1987.
3054 ■ KOSTER INSURANCE AGENCY
Attn: Scholarship
500 Victory Road
Quincy, MA 02171
Tel: (617)770-9889
Free: 800-457-5599
Fax: (617)479-0860
E-mail: Scholarship@kosterins.com
Web Site: http://www.kosterweb.com/about/scholarship_main.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students working on a degree in a health-related field.
Title of Award: Koster Insurance Health Careers Scholarship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Dentistry; Health care services; Nursing; Occupational therapy; Optometry; Pharmaceutical sciences; Physical therapy; Physiology; Public health; Social work Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 5 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $3,000 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed 1 additional year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduates entering their second-to-last or final year of study in a health-related field, including (but not limited to) pre-medicine, nursing, public and community health, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, biology, chemistry, physiology, social work, dentistry, and optometry. Applicants must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and be able to demonstrate financial need. Along with their application, they must submit a 1-page essay describing their personal goals, including their reasons for preparing for a career in health care. Selection is based on motivation to pursue a career in health care, academic excellence, dedication to community service, and financial need. Deadline for Receipt: April of each year. Additional Information: This program began in 2001.
3055 ■ CLARE BOOTHE LUCE FUND
c/o Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.
111 West 50th Street, Suite 4601
New York, NY 10020
Tel: (212)489-7700
Fax: (212)581-9541
E-mail: jdaniels@hluce.org
Web Site: http://www.hluce.org
To provide funding to women interested in studying science or engineering at the undergraduate level at designated universities.
Title of Award: Clare Boothe Luce Scholarships in Science and Engineering Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Engineering, Nuclear; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies; since the program began, more than 800 of these scholarships have been awarded. Funds Available: The amount awarded is established individually by each of the participating institutions. The stipends are intended to augment rather than replace any existing institutional support in these fields. Each stipend is calculated to include the cost of room and board as well as tuition and other fees or expenses. Duration: 2 years; in certain special circumstances, awards for the full 4 years of undergraduate study may be offered.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to female undergraduate students (particularly juniors and seniors) majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering (aeronautical, civil, electrical, mechanical, nuclear, and others), mathematics, meteorology, and physics. Applicants must be U.S. citizens attending 1 of the 12 designated colleges and universities affiliated with this program; periodically, other institutions are invited to participate. Premedical science majors are ineligible for this competition. The participating institutions select the recipients without regard to race, age, religion, ethnic background, or need. All awards are made on the basis of merit. Deadline for Receipt: Varies; check with the participating institutions for their current schedule. Additional Information: The participating institutions are Boston University, Colby College, Creighton University, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Marymount University, Mount Holyoke College, St. John's University, Santa Clara University, Seton Hall University, Trinity College, and University of Notre Dame.
3056 ■ MARYLAND HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION
Attn: Office of Student Financial Assistance
839 Bestgate Road, Suite 400
Annapolis, MD 21401-3013
Tel: (410)260-4545
Free: 800-974-1024
Fax: (410)974-5376
E-mail: osfamail@mhec.state.md.us
Web Site: http://www.mhec.state.md.us/financialAid/ProgramDescriptions/prog_scm.asp
To provide scholarship/loans to Maryland residents who wish to prepare for a teaching career.
Title of Award: Sharon Christa McAuliffe Memorial Teacher Education Award Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Classical studies; Computer and information sciences; Earth sciences; Education; Education, English as a second language; Education, Special; Education, Vocational-technical; Foreign languages; Geosciences; Health care services; Hearing and deafness; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physical sciences; Physics; Space and planetary sciences; Visual impairment Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Master's, Professional, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: The amount of the award is based on the recipient's enrollment and housing status, to a maximum of $17,000 per year. The total amount of all state awards may not exceed the cost of attendance as determined by the school's financial aid office or $17,800, whichever is less. Following graduation, recipients must teach at a Maryland public school for 1 year for each year of financial aid received under this program. If they fail to meet that service obligation, they must repay all funds they received with interest. They must begin the service obligation within 12 months of graduation. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed for 1 additional year if the recipient maintains satisfactory academic progress with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and enrollment at a 2-year or 4-year Maryland college or university in an approved teacher education program.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to Maryland residents who are college students with at least 60 semester credit hours completed, college graduates, and teachers in a non-critical shortage area. Applicants must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and plan to teach in a field identified as a critical shortage area. Selection is based on cumulative GPA, applicable work or volunteer experience, quality of academic background in certification field, and a writing sample. Deadline for Receipt: December of each year. Additional Information: Recently, the eligible critical shortage areas were business education, chemistry, computer science, earth and space science, English for speakers of other languages, family and consumer sciences, German, health occupations, Latin, mathematics, physical science, physics, Spanish, special education (generic infant-grade 3, generic grades 1-8, generic grades 6-adult, hearing impaired, severely and profoundly handicapped, visually impaired), and technology education.
3057 ■ MARYLAND SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM
c/o Johns Hopkins University
203 Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218-2686
Tel: (410)516-7351
Fax: (410)516-4109
E-mail: info@mdspacegrant.org
Web Site: http://www.mdspacegrant.org/scholars_about.html
To provide financial assistance to undergraduates who are interested in studying space-related fields at selected universities in Maryland that are members of the Maryland Space Grant Consortium.
Title of Award: Maryland Space Scholars Program Area, Field, or Subject: Aerospace sciences; Astronomy and astronomical sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Geology; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Space and planetary sciences Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently 16 of these scholarships were awarded (2 at Johns Hopkins University, 5 at Morgan State University, 2 at Hagerstown Community College, 2 at Towson University, and 5 at the University of Maryland at College Park). Funds Available: Scholars receive partial payment of tuition at the participating university they attend. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed if the recipient maintains a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to residents of Maryland and graduates of Maryland high schools who are enrolled full time at a member institution. Applicants must be interested in preparing for a career in mathematics, science, engineering, technology, or a space-related field. They must be majoring in a relevant field, including (but not limited to) astronomy, the biological and life sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geological sciences, or physics. U.S. citizenship is required. Along with their application, they must submit an essay of 200 to 500 words on how this scholarship will help them meet their educational and financial goals. This program is a component of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Grant program, which encourages participation by women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities. Deadline for Receipt: August of each year. Additional Information: The participating universities are Hagerstown Community College, Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, Towson University, the University of Maryland at College Park, and Washington College. Funding for this program is provided by NASA.
3058 ■ MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Attn: Micron Technology Foundation
8000 South Federal Way
P.O. Box 6
Boise, ID 83707-0006
Tel: (208)368-3675
Web Site: http://www.micron.com/about/giving/foundation/scholarships.html
To provide financial assistance to high school seniors in selected states who are interested in majoring in the physical sciences.
Title of Award: Micron Science and Technology Scholars Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Materials research/science; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 13 each year: 1 at $55,000 and 12 at $16,500; 2 are awarded to students from each of 5 participating states, plus 3 floating scholarships are awarded within those states. Funds Available: Stipends are either $55,000 or $16,500. A cash grant of $1,000 is awarded to the high school of each winner.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to high school seniors who reside in and attend public or private schools in Colorado, Idaho, Texas, Utah, or Virginia. Applicants must have a combined SAT score of at least 1350 or a composite ACT score of at least 30; have at least a 3.5 GPA; have demonstrated leadership in school, work, and extracurricular activities; and plan to major in engineering (electrical, computer, chemical, or mechanical), computer science, chemistry, material sciences, or physics. Selection is based on merit (in academics and leadership). Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This program began in 2000. Information is also available from Scholarship Management Services of Scholarship America, One Scholarship Way, P.O. Box 297, St. Peter, MN 56082, (507) 931-1682, (800) 537-4180, Fax: (507) 931-9168.
3059 ■ MONTANA SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM
c/o Montana State University
416 Cobleigh Hall
P.O. Box 173835
Bozeman, MT 59717-3835
Tel: (406)994-4223
Fax: (406)994-4452
E-mail: msgc@montana.edu
Web Site: http://spacegrant.montana.edu/Text/ScholarProgram.html
To provide financial assistance to students in Montana who are interested in working on an undergraduate degree in the space sciences and/or engineering.
Title of Award: Montana Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Aerospace sciences; Astronomy and astronomical sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Geology; Physics; Space and planetary sciences Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 23 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at member institutions of the Montana Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) majoring in fields related to space sciences and engineering. Those fields include, but are not limited to, astronomy, biological and life sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, computer sciences, electrical engineering, geological sciences, mathematics, mechanical engineering, and physics. Priority is given to students who have been involved in aerospace-related research. U.S. citizenship is required. The MSGC is a component of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Grant program, which encourages participation by women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: The MSGC member institutions are Blackfeet Community College, Carroll College, Chief Dull Knife College, Fort Belknap College, Fort Peck Community College, Little Big Horn College, Montana State University at Billings, Montana State University at Bozeman, Montana State University Northern, Montana Tech, Rocky Mountain College, Salish Kootenai College, Stone Child College, University of Great Falls, University of Montana, and University of Montana Western. Funding for this program is provided by NASA.
3060 ■ NATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR GRADUATE DEGREES FOR MINORITIES IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE (GEM)
P.O. Box 537
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: (574)631-7771
Fax: (574)287-1486
E-mail: gem.1@nd.edu
Web Site: http://www.gemfellowship.org
To provide financial assistance and summer work experience to underrepresented minority students interested in obtaining a Ph.D. degree in the life sciences, mathematics, or physical sciences.
Title of Award: GEM Ph.D. Science Fellowship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Earth sciences; Geosciences; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Natural sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College, Doctorate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 40 of these fellowships were awarded. Funds Available: The stipend is $14,000 per year, plus tuition and fees. In addition, there is a summer internship program that provides a salary and reimbursement for travel expenses to and from the summer work site. The total value of the award is between $60,000 and $100,000, depending upon academic status at the time of application, summer employer, and graduate school attended. Duration: 3 to 5 years for the fellowship; 12 weeks during at least 1 summer for the internship. Fellows
selected as juniors or seniors intern each summer until entrance to graduate school; fellows selected after college graduation intern at least 1 summer.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to U.S. citizens who are members of ethnic groups underrepresented in the natural sciences: Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanic Americans. Applicants must be juniors, seniors, or recent baccalaureate graduates in the life sciences, mathematics, or physical sciences (chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, and physics) with an academic record that indicates the ability to pursue doctoral studies (including a GPA of 3.0 or higher). Deadline for Receipt: October of each year. Additional Information: This program is valid only at 1 of 95 participating GEM member universities; write to GEM for a list. The fellowship award is designed to support the student in the first year of the doctoral program without working. Subsequent years are subsidized by the respective university and will usually include either a teaching or research assistantship. Recipients must participate in the GEM summer internship; failure to agree to accept the internship cancels the fellowship. Recipients must enroll in the same scientific discipline as their undergraduate major.
3061 ■ NATIONAL INVENTORS HALL OF FAME
Attn: Collegiate Inventors Competition
221 South Broadway Street
Akron, OH 44308-1595
Tel: (330)849-6887
E-mail: collegiate@invent.org
Web Site: http://www.invent.org/collegiate
To recognize and reward outstanding inventions by college or university students in the fields of science, engineering, and technology.
Title of Award: Collegiate Inventors Competition Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Inventors; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Medicine; Physics; Science; Technology; Veterinary science and medicine Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Postdoctoral, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 15 semifinalists are selected each year; of those, 3 individuals or teams win prizes. Funds Available: Finalists receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in a final round of judging and in the awards dinner and presentation. The Grand Prize winner or team receives $25,000. Other prizes are $10,000 for an undergraduate winner or team and $15,000 for a graduate winner or team. Academic advisors of the winning entries each receive a $3,000 cash prize. Awards are unrestricted cash gifts, not scholarships or grants. Duration: The competition is held annually.
Eligibility Requirements: This competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students who are (or have been) enrolled full time at least part of the 12-month period prior to entry in a college or university in the United States. Entries may also be submitted by teams, up to 4 members, of whom at least 1 must meet the full-time requirement and all others must have been enrolled at least half time sometime during the preceding 24-month period. Applicants must submit a description of their invention, including a patent search and summary of current literature that describes the state of the art and identifies the originality of the invention; test data demonstrating that the idea, invention, or design is workable; the societal, economic, and environmental benefits of the invention; and supplemental material that may include photos, slides, disks, videotapes, and even samples. Entries must be original ideas and the work of a student or team and a university advisor; the invention should be reproducible and may not have been 1) made available to the public as a commercial product or process, or 2) patented or published more than 1 year prior to the date of submission for this competition. Entries are first reviewed by a committee of judges that selects the finalists. The committee is comprised of mathematicians, engineers, biologists, chemists, environmentalists, physicists, computer specialists, members of the medical and veterinary profession, and specialists in invention and development of technology. Entries are judged on the basis of originality, inventiveness, potential value to society (socially, environmentally, and economically), and range or scope of use. Deadline for Receipt: May of each year. Additional Information: This program is co-sponsored by Abbott Laboratories and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It was established in 1990 as the BFGoodrich Collegiate Inventors Program.
3062 ■ NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT OF BLACK CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
c/o Howard University
P.O. Box 77040
Washington, DC 20013
Tel: (202)667-1699
Free: 800-776-1419
Fax: (267)200-0156
Web Site: http://www.nobcche.org
To provide financial assistance to African American undergraduates majoring in chemistry and chemical engineering.
Title of Award: NOBCChE Undergraduate Award Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,500. Duration: 1 year; nonrenewable.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to African American high school graduates and undergraduate students enrolled at a college or university and working on or planning to work on a bachelor's degree in chemistry or chemical engineering. Applicants must submit 3 letters of recommendation, an official transcript, and a resume. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This program is sponsored by the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). Information is also available from Dr. Marlon L. Walker, Awards and Scholarships Committee Chair, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8372, (301) 975-5593 E-mail: marlon. walker@nist.gov.
3063 ■ NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS
Attn: Programs Department
1454 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: (703)549-2207
Fax: (703)683-5312
E-mail: scholarships@nsbe.org
Web Site: http://www.nsbe.org/programs/schol_jnj.php
To provide financial assistance to members of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) who are majoring in designated engineering fields.
Title of Award: Johnson & Johnson NSBE Corporate Scholarship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Biomedical; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Logistics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 13 each year: 1 national award and 12 regional awards (2 in each NSBE region). Funds Available: The national stipend is $2,000; the regional stipends are $1,500. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to members of the society who are entering their junior or senior year in college and majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, operations/logistics, or the following fields of engineering: biomedical, chemical, computer, electrical, industrial, material, or mechanical. Applicants must have a GPA of 3.2 or higher and a demonstrated interest in employment with Johnson & Johnson. Along with their application, they must submit a resume and official transcript. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3064 ■ NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
c/o University of Nebraska
302 Morrill Hall
14th and U Streets
P.O. Box 880339
Lincoln, NE 68588-0339
Tel: (402)472-2644
E-mail: nebacad@unl.edu
Web Site: http://www.neacadsci.org/Info/coll_scholarship.htm
To provide financial assistance to upper-division students majoring in science at colleges and universities in Nebraska.
Title of Award: C. Bertrand and Marian Othmer Scultz Collegiate Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences;
Chemistry; Geology; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $3,000 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed 1 additional year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to student entering their junior or senior year at 4-year colleges and universities in Nebraska. Applicants must have a declared major in a natural science discipline (chemistry, physics, biology, or geology). They must be preparing for a career in a science-related industry, science teaching, or scientific research. A member of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences must provide a letter of nomination. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This scholarship was first awarded in 2006.
3065 ■ NEW HAMPSHIRE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION COMMISSION
3 Barrell Court, Suite 300
Concord, NH 03301-8543
Tel: (603)271-2555
Fax: (603)271-2696
E-mail: pedes@pec.state.nh.us
Web Site: http://www.steate.nh.us/postsecondary/finwork.html
To provide scholarship/loans to New Hampshire residents who are interested in attending college to prepare for careers in designated professions.
Title of Award: New Hampshire Workforce Incentive Program Forgivable Loans Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Education; Education, Special; Linguistics; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Nursing; Physical sciences; Physics; Science Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $500 per semester ($1,000 per year). This is a scholarship/loan program; recipients must agree to pursue, within New Hampshire, the professional career for which they receive training. Recipients of loans for 1 year have their notes cancelled upon completion of 1 year of full-time service; repayment by service must be completed within 3 years from the date of licensure, certification, or completion of the program. Recipients of loans for more than 1 year have their notes cancelled upon completion of 2 years of full-time service; repayment by service must be completed within 5 years from the date of licensure, certification, or completion of the program. If the note is not cancelled because of service, the recipient must repay the loan within 2 years. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to residents of New Hampshire who wish to prepare for careers in fields designated by the commission as shortage areas. Currently, the career shortage areas are chemistry, general science, mathematics, physical sciences, physics, special education, world languages, and nursing (L.P.N. through graduate). Applicants must be enrolled as a junior, senior, or graduate student at a college in New Hampshire and must be able to demonstrate financial need. Deadline for Receipt: May of each year for fall semester; December of each year for spring semester. Additional Information: The time for repayment of the loan, either in cash or through professional service, is extended while the recipient is 1) engaged in a course of study, at least on a half-time basis, at an institution of higher education; 2) serving on active duty as a member of the armed forces of the United States, or as a member of VISTA, the Peace Corps, or AmeriCorps, for a period up to 3 years; 3) temporarily totally disabled for a period up to 3 years; or 4) unable to secure employment because of the need to care for a disabled spouse, child, or parent for a period up to 12 months. The repayment obligation is cancelled if the recipient is unable to work because of a permanent total disability, receives relief under federal bankruptcy laws, or dies. This program went into effect in 1999.
3066 ■ NEW JERSEY UTILITIES ASSOCIATION
50 West State Street, Suite 1117
Trenton, NJ 08608
Tel: (609)392-1000
Fax: (609)396-4231
Web Site: http://www.njua.org
To provide financial assistance to minority, female, and disabled high school seniors in New Jersey interested in majoring in selected subjects in college.
Title of Award: New Jersey Utilities Association Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Accounting; Biological and clinical sciences; Business administration; Chemistry; Engineering; Environmental conservation; Environmental science Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 2 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,500 per year. Duration: 4 years.
Eligibility Requirements: Eligible to apply for this scholarship are women, minorities (Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Asian American/Pacific Islander), and persons with disabilities who are high school seniors in New Jersey. They must be able to demonstrate financial need, be planning to enroll on a full-time basis at an institute of higher education, and be planning to work on a bachelor's degree in engineering, environmental science, chemistry, biology, business administration, or accounting. Children of employees of any New Jersey Utilities Association-member company are ineligible. Selection is based on overall academic excellence and demonstrated financial need. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year.
3067 ■ OAK RIDGE INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
Attn: Science and Engineering Education
P.O. Box 117
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117
Tel: (865)576-9279
Fax: (865)241-5220
E-mail: coxre@orau.gov
Web Site: http://www.orau.gov/orise.htm
To provide financial assistance and research experience to undergraduate students at minority serving institutions who are majoring in scientific fields of interest to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Title of Award: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions Undergraduate Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Atmospheric science; Biological and clinical sciences; Cartography/Surveying; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Geography; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Photogrammetry; Physical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: 10 each year. Funds Available: This program provides payment of tuition and fees (to a maximum of $4,000 per year) and a stipend during the internship of $650 per week. Duration: 1 academic year and 2 summers.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to juniors and seniors at minority serving institutions, including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Applicants must be majoring in atmospheric science, biology, cartography, chemistry, computer science, engineering, environmental science, geodesy, geography, marine science, mathematics, meteorology, photogrammetry, physical science, physics, or remote sensing. They must also be interested in participating in a research internship at a NOAA site. U.S. citizenship is required. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This program is funded by NOAA through an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).
3068 ■ OHIO SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM
c/o Ohio Aerospace Institute
22800 Cedar Point Road
Cleveland, OH 44142
Tel: (440)962-3032
Free: 800-828-OSGC
Fax: (440)962-3057
E-mail: osgc@oai.org
Web Site: http://www.osgc.org/Scholarship.html
To provide financial assistance to students in their junior year at selected universities in Ohio who wish to working on a bachelor's degree in an aerospace-related field.
Title of Award: Ohio Space Grant Consortium Junior Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Astronomy and astronomical sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Engineering, Petroleum; Geography; Geology; Materials research/
science; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Space and planetary sciences Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 20 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,000. Duration: 1 year; recipients may apply for a senior scholarship if they maintain satisfactory academic performance and good progress on their research project.
Eligibility Requirements: These scholarships are available to U.S. citizens who expect to complete within 2 years the requirements for a bachelor of science degree in an aerospace-related discipline (aeronautical engineering, aerospace engineering, astronomy, biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, computer engineering and science, control engineering, electrical engineering, engineering mechanics, geography, geology, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, materials science and engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, physics, and systems engineering). Applicants must be attending a member university of the Ohio Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) or another participating university. They must propose and initiate a research project on campus under the guidance of a faculty member. Along with their application, they must submit a 1-page personal objective statement that discusses their career goals and anticipated benefits to be derived from this program. Women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply. Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: These scholarships are funded through the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with matching funds provided by the member universities, the Ohio Aerospace Institute, and private industry. The OSGC member universities include the University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University, Central State University, University of Cincinnati, Cleveland State University, University of Dayton, Ohio State University, Ohio University, University of Toledo, Wilberforce University, and Wright State University. Other participating universities are Cedarville University, Marietta College (petroleum engineering), Miami University (manufacturing engineering), Ohio Northern University (mechanical engineering), and Youngstown State University (mechanical and industrial engineering). Recipients are required to attend the annual spring research symposium sponsored by the OSGC and present a poster on their research project.
3069 ■ OREGON UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
Attn: Chancellor's Office, Industry Affairs Division
Capital Center, Suite 1065
18640 N.W. Walker Road
Beaverton, OR 97006-8966
Tel: (503)725-2918
Fax: (503)775-2921
E-mail: aeaschol@ous.edu
Web Site: http://www.ous.edu/ecs/scholarships.html
To provide financial assistance to Oregon high school seniors interested in studying designated computer and engineering fields at selected public universities in the state.
Title of Award: AeA Technology Scholarship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Mechanical; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, this program awarded 25 new scholarships. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,500 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed up to 3 additional years if the recipient maintains a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to seniors graduating from high schools in Oregon who plan to attend Eastern Oregon University, Oregon Institute of Technology, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Southern Oregon University, Western Oregon University, or the University of Oregon. Applicants must be planning to major in biochemistry, chemical engineering, chemistry, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, engineering technology, industrial engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, or physics (not all majors are available at each institution). Women and ethnic minorities underrepresented in the technology industry (Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans) are strongly encouraged to apply. Selection is based on academic performance; college entrance examination scores; mathematics, science, and technology course work; achievements; leadership; civic participation; interests; employment; insight into and commitment to a career in technology; and communication skill. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: This program was established in 1999 by Intel, which offered it to the Oregon Council of the AeA (formerly American Electronics Association) in the following year. Currently, Intel and other Oregon AeA member companies (such as Xerox and Hewlett Packard) provide ongoing support.
3070 ■ PLASTICS INSTITUTE OF AMERICA
c/o University of Massachusetts at Lowell
Attn: Plastics Pioneers Association
333 Aiken Street
Lowell, MA 01854
Tel: (978)934-3130
Fax: (978)458-4141
E-mail: info@plasticsinstitute.org
Web Site: http://www.plasticsinstitute.org/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to college students taking courses related to plastics technology.
Title of Award: Plastics Pioneers Association Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Materials; Technology Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 15 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,500 per year. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed for 1 additional year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to students enrolled in a 2-year, 4-year, or certificate program. Applicants must be studying plastics/polymer science, engineering, technology, and management. They must be U.S. citizens and interested in preparing for a career in the plastics industry. Selection is based on academic record. extracurricular activities, recommendations, and an essay on their interest in a career in plastics. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: This program is funded by the Education Fund of the Plastics Pioneers Association and administered by the Plastics Institute of America.
3071 ■ SEALASKA CORPORATION
Attn: Sealaska Heritage Institute
One Sealaska Plaza, Suite 301
Juneau, AK 99801-1249
Tel: (907)586-9166; 888-311-4992
Fax: (907)586-9293
E-mail: scholarship@sealaska.com
Web Site: http://www.sealaskaheritage.org/programs/university_scholarships.htm
To provide financial assistance for undergraduate or graduate study to Native Alaskans who have a connection to Sealaska Corporation and are majoring in designated fields.
Title of Award: Sealaska Heritage Institute 7(i) Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Business administration; Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Health care services; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Natural resources; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: The amount of the award depends on the availability of funds, the number of qualified applicants, class standing, and cumulative GPA. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed up to 5 years for a bachelor's degree, up to 3 years for a master's degree, up to 2 years for a doctorate, or up to 3 years for vocational study. The maximum total support is limited to 9 years. Renewal depends on recipients' maintaining full-time enrollment and a GPA of 2.5 or higher.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to 1) Alaska Natives who are enrolled to Sealaska Corporation, and 2) Native lineal descendants of Alaska Natives enrolled to Sealaska Corporation, whether or not the applicant owns Sealaska Corporation stock. Applicants must be enrolled or accepted for enrollment as full-time undergraduate or graduate students. Along with their application, they must submit 2 essays: 1) their personal history and educational goals, and 2) their expected contributions to the Alaska Native or Native American community. Financial need is also considered in the selection process. The following areas of study qualify for these awards: natural resources (environmental sciences, engineering,
conservation biology, environmental law, fisheries, geology, marine science/biology, forestry, wildlife management, and mining technology); business administration (accounting, finance, marketing, international business, international commerce and trade, management of information systems, human resources management, economics, computer information systems, and industrial management); and other special fields (cadastral surveys, chemistry, equipment/machinery operators, industrial safety specialists, health specialists, plastics engineers, trade specialists, physics, mathematics, and marine trades and occupations). Deadline for Receipt: February of each year. Additional Information: Funding for this program is provided from Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) Section 7(i) revenue sharing provisions. Sealaska sponsors a number of other scholarships, including the Cape Fox Scholarships and the Sealaska Heritage Institute Scholarships.
3072 ■ SIEMENS FOUNDATION
170 Wood Avenue South
Iselin, NJ 08830
877-822-5233
Fax: (732)603-5890
E-mail: foundation@sc.siemens.com
Web Site: http://www.siemens-foundation.org/awards
To recognize and reward high school students with exceptional scores on the Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in mathematics and the sciences.
Title of Award: Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement Area, Field, or Subject: Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Environmental conservation; Environmental science; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Statistics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Professional, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 24 regional scholarships (2 females and 2 males in each of the 6 regions), 2 national scholarships (1 female and 1 male), 12 high school awards (in each region, 1 to a school for improvement in the number and percentage of students taking AP examinations, 1 to an urban school for providing access to AP mathematics and science to minorities), and 18 teacher awards (in each region, 2 for commitment to students and the AP program, 1 for teaching minorities) are awarded each year. Funds Available: Regional scholarships are $3,000; national winners receive additional $5,000 scholarships. Awards to teachers and to schools are $1,000. Duration: The awards are presented annually.
Eligibility Requirements: All students in U.S. high schools are eligible to be considered for these awards (including home-schooled students and those in U.S. territories). Each fall, the College Board identifies the male and female seniors in each of its regions who have earned the highest number of scores on 7 AP exams: biology, calculus BC, chemistry, computer science AB, environmental science, physics C (physics C: mechanics and physics C: electricity each count as half), and statistics. Males and females are considered separately. Regional winners receive all-expense paid trips to Washington, D.C., where national winners are announced. The program also recognizes and rewards monetarily 1) schools that have shown the greatest improvement in the number and percentage of students taking AP examinations in biology, calculus, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, physics, and statistics in the past year; and 2) non-magnet urban schools that provide access to AP mathematics and science to a significant number of underrepresented minority students. In addition, teachers are rewarded for their commitment to students and the AP program. Additional teachers are recognized because they have successfully taught AP mathematics and/or science to underrepresented minority students in non-magnet urban schools. Deadline for Receipt: There is no application or nomination process for these awards. The College Board identifies the students, teachers, and high schools for the Siemens Foundation. Additional Information: Information from the College Board is available at (703) 707-8999.
3073 ■ SIEMENS FOUNDATION
170 Wood Avenue South
Iselin, NJ 08830
877-822-5233
Fax: (732)603-5890
E-mail: foundation@sc.siemens.com
Web Site: http://www.siemens-foundation.org/scholarship
To recognize and reward outstanding high school seniors who have undertaken individual or team research projects in science, mathematics, and technology (or in combinations of those disciplines).
Title of Award: Siemens Westinghouse Competition Awards Area, Field, or Subject: Astronomy and astronomical sciences; Atmospheric science; Biochemistry; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Earth sciences; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental science; Genetics; Geosciences; Materials research/science; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Nutrition; Physics; Writing Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: In the initial round of judging, up to 300 regional semifinalists (up to 50 in each region) are selected. Of those, 60 are chosen as regional finalists (5 individuals and 5 teams in each of the 6 regions). Then 12 regional winners (1 individual and 1 team) are selected in the regional competitions, and they become the national finalists. Funds Available: At the regional level, finalists receive $1,000 scholarships, both as individuals and members of teams. Individual regional winners receive $3,000 scholarships. Winning regional teams receive $6,000 scholarships to be divided among the team members. Those regional winners then receive additional scholarships as national finalists. In the national competition. first-place winners receive an additional $100,000 scholarship, second place an additional $50,000 scholarship, third place an additional $40,000 scholarship, fourth place an additional $30,000 scholarship, fifth place an additional $20,000 scholarship, and sixth place an additional $10,000 scholarship. Those national awards are provided both to individuals and to teams to be divided equally among team members. Scholarship money is sent directly to the recipient's college or university to cover undergraduate and/or graduate educational expenses. Schools with regional finalists receive a $2,000 award to be used to support science, mathematics, and technology programs in their schools. Duration: The competition is held annually.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to high school seniors who are legal or permanent U.S. residents. They must be enrolled in a high school in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Wake and Midway Islands, or the Marianas. U.S. high school students enrolled in a Department of Defense dependents school, an accredited overseas American or international school, a foreign school as an exchange student, or a foreign school because their parent(s) live and work abroad are also eligible. Students being home-schooled qualify if they obtain the endorsement of the school district official responsible for such programs. Research projects may be submitted in mathematics and the biological and physical sciences, or involve combinations of disciplines, such as astrophysics, biochemistry, bioengineering, biology, biophysics, botany, chemistry, computer science, civil engineering, earth and atmospheric science engineering, electrical engineering, environmental sciences, fluid dynamics, genetics, geology, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, nutritional science, physics, toxicology, and virology. Both individual and team projects (2 or 3 members) may be entered. All team members must meet the eligibility requirements. Team projects may include seniors, but that is not a requirement. Competition entrants must submit a detailed report on their research project, including a description of the purpose of the research, rationale for the research, pertinent scientific literature, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. All projects must be endorsed by a sponsoring high school (except home-schooled students, who obtain their endorsement from the district or state home-school official). Each project must have a project advisor or mentor who is a member of the instructional staff or a person approved by the endorsing high school. There are 3 judging phases to the competition. An initial review panel selects outstanding research projects from 6 different regions of the country. The students submitting these projects are identified as regional semifinalists. Out of those, the highest-rated projects from each region are selected and the students who submitted them are recognized as regional finalists. For the next phase, the regional finalists are offered all-expense paid trips to the regional competition on the campus of a regional university partner, where their projects are reviewed by a panel of judges appointed by the host institution. Regional finalists are required to prepare a poster display of their research project, make an oral presentation about the research and research findings, and respond to questions from the judges. The top-rated individual and the top-rated team project in each region are selected as regional winners to represent the region in the national competition as national finalists. At that competition, the national
finalists again display their projects, make oral presentations, and respond to judges' questions. At each phase, selection is based on clarity of expression, comprehensiveness, creativity, field knowledge, future work, interpretation, literature review, presentation, scientific importance, and validity. Deadline for Receipt: September of each year. Additional Information: The program is offered by Siemens Foundation, in partnership with the College Board. Information is available from the College Board at (703) 707-8999, E-mail: spro@collegeboard.org. Students submitting the projects with the highest evaluations become part of a registry that is circulated to colleges and universities nationwide. To continue receiving scholarships, winners must attend an accredited academic institution on a full-time basis.
3074 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: American Plastics Council (APC)/SPE Plastics Environmental Division Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,500 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This scholarship is awarded annually in the names of corporations cited as the Excellence in Plastics Impact on the Environment by the Plastics Environmental Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).
3075 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Composites Division/Harold Giles Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3076 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Robert E. Cramer/Product Design and Development Division/Mid-Michigan Section Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3077 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Robert G. Dailey/Detroit Section Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $4,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3078 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to Mexican American undergraduate and graduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Fleming/Blaszcak Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College, Graduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $2,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students of Mexican descent who are enrolled in a 4-year college or university. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal residents. They must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry; and documentation of their Mexican heritage. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: This program is sponsored by Cal Mold Inc. and Formula Plastics.
3079 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry and experience in the thermoset industry.
Title of Award: Thermoset Division/James I. MacKenzie Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 2 each year: 1 to an undergraduate and 1 to a graduate student. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at either a 4-year college or in a 2-year technical program. Applicants must have experience in the thermoset industry, such as courses taken, research conducted, or jobs held. They must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry; and a statement detailing their exposure to the thermoset industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3080 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Ted Neward Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 3 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $3,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. U.S. citizenship is required. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3081 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Polymer Modifiers and Additives Division Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 4 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $4,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3082 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Society of Plastics Engineers Foundation Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 10 to 12 each year. Funds Available: Stipends range up to $4,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed for up to 3 additional years.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good
academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3083 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide college scholarships to students who have a career interest in the plastics industry and experience in the thermoforming industry.
Title of Award: Thermoforming Division Memorial Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Graduate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: 2 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $5,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at either a 4-year college or in a 2-year technical program. Applicants must have experience in the thermoforming industry, such as courses taken, research conducted, or jobs held. They must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; a 1to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry; and a statement detailing their exposure to the thermoforming industry. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3084 ■ SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS
Attn: SPE Foundation
14 Fairfield Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804-0403
Tel: (203)740-5447
Fax: (203)775-1157
E-mail: foundation@4spe.org
Web Site: http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarships.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a career interest in the plastics industry.
Title of Award: Vinyl Plastics Division Scholarship Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Materials; Engineering, Mechanical; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 1 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000 per year. Funds are paid directly to the recipient's school. Duration: 1 year.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to full-time undergraduate students at 4-year colleges or in 2-year technical programs. Applicants must 1) have a demonstrated or expressed interest in the plastics industry; 2) be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics or polymer industry (e.g., plastics engineering, polymer sciences, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial engineering); 3) be in good academic standing at their school; and 4) be able to document financial need. Along with their application, they must submit 3 letters of recommendation; a high school and/or college transcript; and a 1- to 2-page statement telling why they are interested in the scholarship, their qualifications, and their educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Preference is given to applicants with experience in the vinyl industry, such as courses taken, research conducted, or jobs held. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year.
3085 ■ TEXAS SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM
Attn: Administrative Assistant
3925 West Braker Lane, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78759
Tel: (512)471-3583
Free: 800-248-8742
Fax: (512)471-3585
E-mail: scholarships@tsgc.utexas.edu
Web Site: http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/grants
To provide financial assistance to upper-division and medical students at Texas universities working on degrees in the fields of space science and engineering.
Title of Award: Columbia Crew Memorial Undergraduate Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Aerospace sciences; Biological and clinical sciences; Chemistry; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Industrial; Engineering, Mechanical; Geology; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Space and planetary sciences Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Doctorate, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year; recently, 29 of these scholarships were awarded. Funds Available: The stipend is $1,000. Duration: 1 year; nonrenewable.
Eligibility Requirements: Applicants must be U.S. citizens, eligible for financial assistance, and registered for full-time study at a participating college or university. Applicants must be a sophomore at a 2-year institution, a junior or senior at a 4-year institution, or a first- or second-year student at a medical school. Supported fields of study have included aerospace engineering, biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, electrical engineering, geology, industrial engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, and physics. The program encourages participation by members of groups underrepresented in science and engineering (persons with disabilities, women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders). Selection is based on excellence in academics, participation in space education projects, participation in research projects, and exhibited leadership qualities. Deadline for Receipt: March of each year. Additional Information: In 2003, the Texas Space Grant Consortium renamed its undergraduate scholarship program in honor of the 7 Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts. The participating universities are Baylor University, Lamar University, Prairie View A&M University, Rice University, San Jacinto College, Southern Methodist University, Sul Ross State University, Texas A&M University (including Kingsville and Corpus Christi campuses), Texas Christian University, Texas Southern University, Texas Tech University, Trinity University, University of Houston (including Clear Lake and Downtown campuses), University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas at San Antonio, and University of Texas/Pan American. This program is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
3086 ■ U.S. AIR FORCE
Attn: Headquarters AFROTC/RRUC
551 East Maxwell Boulevard Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-5917
Tel: (334)953-2091;(866)423-7682
Fax: (334)953-6167
Web Site: http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/hsschol/types.php
To provide financial assistance to high school seniors or graduates who are interested in joining Air Force ROTC in college and are willing to serve as Air Force officers following completion of their bachelor's degree.
Title of Award: Air Force ROTC High School Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Architecture; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Architectural; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental science; General studies/Field of study not specified; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Operations research; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: Approximately 2,000 each year. Funds Available: Type 1 scholarships provide payment of full tuition and most laboratory fees, as well as $600 for books. Type 2 scholarships pay the same benefits except tuition is
capped at $15,000 per year; students who attend an institution where tuition exceeds $15,000 must pay the difference. Type 7 scholarships pay full tuition and most laboratory fees, but students must attend a college or university where the tuition is less than $9,000 per year or a public college or university where they qualify for the in-state tuition rate; they may not attend an institution with higher tuition and pay the difference. Approximately 5% of scholarship offers are for Type 1, approximately 20% are for Type 2, and approximately 75% are for type 7. All recipients are also awarded a tax-free subsistence allowance for 10 months of each year that is $250 per month as a freshman, $300 per month as a sophomore, $350 per month as a junior, and $400 per month as a senior. Duration: 4 years.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to high school seniors who are U.S. citizens at least 17 of age and have been accepted at a college or university with an Air Force ROTC unit on campus or a college with a cross-enrollment agreement with such a college. Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and an ACT composite score of 24 or higher or an SAT score of 1100 (mathematics and verbal portion only) or higher. At the time of their commissioning in the Air Force, they must be no more than 31 years of age. They must agree to serve for at least 4 years as active-duty Air Force officers following graduation from college. Deadline for Receipt: November of each year. Additional Information: Recently, approximately 70% of these scholarships were offered to students planning to major in the science and technical fields of architecture, chemistry, computer science, engineering (aeronautical, aerospace, astronautical, architectural, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, or mechanical), mathematics, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, operations research, or physics. Approximately 30% were offered to students in all other fields. While scholarship recipients can major in any subject, they must enroll in 4 years of aerospace studies courses at 1 of the 144 colleges and universities that have an Air Force ROTC unit on campus; students may also attend nearly 900 other colleges that have cross-enrollment agreements with the institutions that have an Air Force ROTC unit on campus. Recipients must attend a 4-week summer training camp at an Air Force base, usually between their sophomore and junior years. Most cadets incur a 4-year active-duty commitment. Pilots incur a 10-year active-duty service commitment after successfully completing Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training and navigators incur a 6-year commitment after successfully completing Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training. The minimum service obligation for intelligence and Air Battle Management career fields is 5 years.
3087 ■ U.S. AIR FORCE
Attn: Headquarters AFROTC/RRUC
551 East Maxwell Boulevard
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-5917
Tel: (334)953-2091; (866)423-7682
Fax: (334)953-6167
Web Site: http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/incolschol/incolProgram.php
To provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who are willing to join Air Force ROTC in college and serve as Air Force officers following completion of their bachelor's degree.
Title of Award: Air Force ROTC In-College Scholarship Program Area, Field, or Subject: Architecture; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Architectural; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental science; General studies/Field of study not specified; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Operations research; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: Cadets selected in Phase 1 are awarded type 2 AFROTC scholarships that provide for payment of tuition and fees, to a maximum of $15,000 per year. A limited number of cadets selected in Phase 2 are also awarded type 2 AFROTC scholarships, but most are awarded type 3 AFROTC scholarships with tuition capped at $9,000 per year. Cadets selected in Phase 3 are awarded type 6 AFROTC scholarships with tuition capped at $3,000 per year. All recipients are also awarded a book allowance of $600 and a tax-free subsistence allowance for 10 months of each year that is $300 per month during the sophomore year, $350 during the junior year, and $400 during the senior year. Duration: 3 years for students selected as freshmen or 2 years for students selected as sophomores.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to U.S. citizens enrolled as freshmen or sophomores at 1 of the 144 colleges and universities that have an Air Force ROTC unit on campus. Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher and be able to pass the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test and the Air Force ROTC Physical Fitness Test. At the time of commissioning, they may be no more than 31 years of age. They must agree to serve for at least 4 years as active-duty Air Force officers following graduation from college. Phase 1 is open to students enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program who do not currently have a scholarship but now wish to apply. Phase 2 is open to Phase 1 nonselects and students not enrolled in Air Force ROTC. Phase 3 is open only to Phase 2 nonselects. Recently, the program gave preference to students majoring in the science and technical fields of architecture, chemistry, computer science, engineering (aeronautical, aerospace, astronautical, architectural, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, or mechanical), mathematics, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, operations research, or physics. Deadline for Receipt: January of each year. Additional Information: While scholarship recipients can major in any subject, they must complete 4 years of aerospace studies courses at 1 of the 144 colleges or universities that have an Air Force ROTC unit on campus. Recipients must also attend a 4-week summer training camp at an Air Force base, usually between their sophomore and junior years; 2-year scholarship awardees attend in the summer after their junior year. Current military personnel are eligible for early release from active duty in order to enter the Air Force ROTC program. Following completion of their bachelor's degree, scholarship recipients earn a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and serve at least 4 years.
3088 ■ U.S. AIR FORCE
Attn: Headquarters AFROTC/RRUE
Enlisted Commissioning Section
551 East Maxwell Boulevard
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-5917
Tel: (334)953-2091; (866)423-7682
Fax: (334)953-6167
E-mail: enlisted@afrotc.com
Web Site: http://www.afoats.af.mil/AFROTC/EnlistedComm/ASCP.asp
To allow selected enlisted Air Force personnel to earn a bachelor's degree in approved majors by providing financial assistance for full-time college study.
Title of Award: Airman Scholarship and Commissioning Program Area, Field, or Subject: Architecture; Atmospheric science; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Architectural; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental science; General studies/Field of study not specified; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Operations research; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: Awards are type 2 AFROTC scholarships that provide for payment of tuition and fees, to a maximum of $15,000 per year, plus an annual book allowance of $600. All recipients are also awarded a tax-free subsistence allowance for 10 months of each year that is $300 per month during their sophomore year, $350 during their junior year, and $400 during their senior year. Duration: 2 to 4 years, until completion of a bachelor's degree.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to active-duty enlisted members of the Air Force who have completed at least 1 year of continuous active duty and at least 1 year on station. Applicants normally must have completed at least 24 semester hours of graded college credit with a cumulative college GPA of 2.5 or higher. If they have not completed 24 hours of graded college credit, they must have an ACT score of 24 or higher or an SAT combined verbal and mathematics score of 1100 or higher. They must also have scores on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) of 15 or more on the verbal scale and 10 or more on the quantitative scale and be able to pass the Air Force ROTC Physical Fitness Test. Applicants must have been accepted at a college or university (including crosstown schools) offering the AFROTC 4-year program. When they complete the program and receive their commission, they may not be 31 years of age or older. U.S. citizenship is required. Recently,
awards were presented according to the following priorities: 1) computer, electrical, and environmental engineering; 2) aeronautical, aerospace, architectural, astronautical, civil, and mechanical engineering and meteorology and atmospheric sciences; 3) all other ABET-accredited engineering majors, architecture, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, operations research, and physics; 4) all other majors. Deadline for Receipt: October of each year. Additional Information: Selectees separate from the active-duty Air Force, join an AFROTC detachment, and become full-time students. Upon completing their degree, they are commissioned as officers and returned to active duty in the Air Force with a 4-year service obligation. Further information is available from base education service officers or an Air Force ROTC unit.
3089 ■ U.S. AIR FORCE
Attn: Headquarters AFROTC/RRUE
Enlisted Commissioning Section
551 East Maxwell Boulevard
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-5917
Tel: (334)953-2091; (866)423-7682
Fax: (334)953-6167
E-mail: enlisted@afrotc.com
Web Site: http://www.afoats.af.mil/AFROTC/EnlistedComm/POCERP.asp
To allow selected enlisted Air Force personnel to earn a baccalaureate degree by providing financial assistance for full-time college study.
Title of Award: Professional Officer Course Early Release Program Area, Field, or Subject: Architecture; Atmospheric science; Chemistry; Computer and information sciences; Engineering; Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical; Engineering, Architectural; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Computer; Engineering, Electrical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental science; General studies/Field of study not specified; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Meteorology; Operations research; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: Participants receive a stipend for 10 months of the year that is $350 per month during the first year and $400 per month during the second year. Scholarship recipients earn the Professional Officer Course Incentive of $3,000 per year for tuition and $600 per year for books. Duration: 2 years (no more and no less).
Eligibility Requirements: Eligible to participate in this program are enlisted members of the Air Force under the age of 30 (or otherwise able to be commissioned before becoming 35 years of age) who have completed at least 1 year on continuous active duty, have served on station for at least 1 year, and have no more than 2 years remaining to complete their initial baccalaureate degree. Scholarship applicants must be younger than 31 years of age when they graduate and earn their commission. All applicants must have been accepted at a college or university offering the AFROTC 4-year program and must have a cumulative college GPA of 2.5 or higher. Their Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) scores must be at least 15 on the verbal and 10 on the quantitative. Applicants who have not completed 24 units of college work must have an ACT composite score of 24 or higher or an SAT combined verbal and mathematics score of 1100 or higher. U.S. citizenship is required. Recently, awards were presented according to the following priorities: 1) computer, electrical, and environmental engineering; 2) aeronautical, aerospace, architectural, astronautical, civil, and mechanical engineering and meteorology and atmospheric sciences; 3) all other ABET-accredited engineering majors, architecture, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, operations research, and physics; 4) all other majors. Deadline for Receipt: October of each year. Additional Information: Upon completing their degree, selectees are commissioned as officers in the Air Force with a 4-year service obligation. Further information is available from base education service officers or an Air Force ROTC unit.
3090 ■ U.S. NAVY
Attn: Navy Personnel Command
5722 Integrity Drive
Millington, TN 38054-5057
Tel: (901)874-3070; 888-633-9674
Fax: (901)874-2651
E-mail: nukeprograms@cnrc.navy.mil
Web Site: http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/nucfield/college/officer_options.htm
To provide financial assistance to college juniors and seniors who wish to serve in the Navy's nuclear propulsion training program following graduation.
Title of Award: Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) Program Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Engineering; General studies/Field of study not specified; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Four Year College Number Awarded: Varies each year. Funds Available: Participants become Active Reserve enlisted Navy personnel and receive a salary of up to $2,500 per month; the exact amount depends on the local cost of living and other factors. A bonus of $10,000 is also paid at the time of enlistment and another $2,000 upon completion of nuclear power training. Duration: Up to 30 months, until completion of a bachelor's degree.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to U.S. citizens who are entering their junior or senior year of college as a full-time student. Strong technical majors (mathematics, physics, chemistry, or an engineering field) are encouraged but not required. Applicants must have completed at least 1 year of calculus and 1 year of physics and must have earned a grade of "C" or better in all mathematics, science, and technical courses. Normally, they must be 26 years of age or younger at the expected date of commissioning, although applicants for the design and research specialty may be 29 years old. Additional Information: Following graduation, participants attend Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida for 4 months and receive their commissions. They have a service obligation of 8 years (of which at least 5 years must be on active duty), beginning with 6 months at the Navy Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, South Carolina and 6 more months of hands-on training at a nuclear reactor facility. Further information on this program is available from a local Navy recruiter or the Navy Recruiting Command, 801 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA 22203-1991.
3091 ■ UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE
Attn: Texas Interscholastic League Foundation
1701 Manor Road
P.O. Box 8028
Austin, TX 78713
Tel: (512)232-4938
Fax: (512)471-5908
E-mail: carolyn.scott@mail.utexas.edu
Web Site: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/tilf/scholarships.html
To provide financial assistance to students who participate in programs of the Texas Interscholastic League Foundation (TILF) and plan to major in chemistry, biochemistry, or chemical engineering.
Title of Award: Welch Foundation Scholarships Area, Field, or Subject: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Engineering, Chemical Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Undergraduate Number Awarded: 20 each year. Funds Available: The stipend is $3,500 per year. Duration: 4 years.
Eligibility Requirements: This program is open to students who meet the 5 basic requirements of the TILF: 1) graduate from high school during the current year and begin college or university in Texas by the following fall; 2) enroll full time at an approved institution and maintain a GPA of 2.5 or higher during the first semester; 3) compete in a University Interscholastic League (UIL) academic state meet contest in accounting, calculator applications, computer applications, computer science, current issues and events, debate (cross-examination and Lincoln-Douglas), journalism (editorial writing, feature writing, headline writing, and news writing), literary criticism, mathematics, number sense, 1-act play, ready writing, science, social studies, speech (prose interpretation, poetry interpretation, informative speaking, and persuasive speaking), or spelling and vocabulary; 4) submit high school transcripts that include SAT and/or ACT scores; and 5) submit parents' latest income tax returns. Applicants for this scholarship must major in chemistry, biochemistry, or chemical engineering and be interested in engaging in chemical research at the graduate level. Along with their application, they must submit a 50-word essay on why they desire to major in chemistry, biochemistry, or chemical engineering. Deadline for Receipt: May of each year. Additional Information: This scholarships may be used at 56 approved colleges and universities in Texas. For a list, contact UIL.
3092 ■ WASHINGTON HIGHER EDUCATION COORDINATING BOARD
917 Lakeridge Way
P.O. Box 43430
Olympia, WA 98504-3430
Tel: (360)753-7851; 888-535-0747
Fax: (360)753-7808
E-mail: futureteachers@hecb.wa.gov
Web Site: http://www.hecb.wa.gov/financialaid/other/alternative.asp
To provide forgivable loans to K-12 classified employees in Washington who are interested in attending a college or university in order to become a teacher.
Title of Award: Washington Conditional Scholarships for Alternative Teaching Certification Area, Field, or Subject: Chemistry; Education; Education, Bilingual and cross-cultural; Education, Elementary; Education, English as a second language; Education, Secondary; Education, Special; Foreign languages; Mathematics and mathematical sciences; Physics; Technology Level of Education for which Award is Granted: Professional, Undergraduate Number Awarded: Approximately 25 each year. Funds Available: The maximum award is $4,000 per academic year. These awards are in the form of loans that can be forgiven in exchange for teaching service. Each 2 years of eligible teaching service results in the forgiveness of 1 year of loan. Duration: 1 year; may be renewed up to 4 additional years.
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Chemistry
CHEMISTRY.
Where and when did chemistry originate? Some chemists would identify ancient Egypt as the birthplace of chemistry because of that culture's glassworks, cosmetics, and mummification techniques. Advocates of this theory might also refer to a possible etymology of the word chemistry from the Egyptian word for black. Other historians place the origins of chemistry amid ancient Greek theories of matter that formulated the basic concepts—principles, elements, and atoms—for understanding the individuality of material substances and their transformations. Others would argue that chemistry emerged in medieval alchemy: alchemists invented the laboratory that is still the site for the production of chemical knowledge, and they established and transmitted techniques and instruments that are still at work in many chemical processes. Meanwhile, historians of institutional life would assert that chemistry emerged in seventeenth-century Europe when public lectures and chairs of chemistry were created.
The variety of answers to the question of origins points to the multiple identities of chemistry. A posteriori it seems natural to consider chemistry as an autonomous academic science with technological applications in a variety of domains. However, this is only one face of chemistry. Whether we consider chemistry as a set of technological practices—such as metal reduction, dyeing, glass-making—or as a theory of matter transformations, or as a teachable and public knowledge enjoying an academic status, the chronological marks change dramatically.
The question of origin cannot be settled not only because chemistry is multifaceted, but also because the answer depends heavily on the image of chemistry one wants to convey. For instance, eighteenth-century chemists strongly denied any connection between chemistry and alchemy. The kind of useful and reliable discipline they wanted to promote on the academic stage was contrasted with the obscurity and fraudulent practices of alchemists, although this is a discontinuity seriously questioned by historians of alchemy at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Alchemy in the Scientific Revolution
First, historians of alchemy note that there was no linguistic distinction between chemistry and alchemy in the seventeenth century—both disciplines being named "chymistry." Second, against the popular view of alchemy as a spiritual quest based on religious symbolism, historians such as Lawrence Principe and William Newman claim that "chymists" did actually manipulate and transform matter. While the religious interpretation of alchemy served to distance it from chemistry, they emphasize the continuity and argue that medieval alchemists already had developed experimental methods often considered as chief characteristics of modern science. They established a number of tests to identify substances; they used analysis and synthesis in order to demonstrate the similarity between substances extracted from nature and substances artificially produced in the laboratory; and they used weight measurements and the balance-sheet method traditionally credited to Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–1794) to determine the identity of substances.
Early modern "chymistry" also questions the grand narrative of the scientific revolution, with Galileo Galilei's (1564–1642) and Robert Boyle's (1627–1691) mechanical philosophy whisking away the alchemical tradition. Boyle's view of material phenomena as being produced by the interaction of small particles that have only primary qualities (size, shape, and motion) by no means implied a rejection of the alchemical tradition. Since Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–c. 851), whose work was spread and discussed in the West in the thirteenth century, the discipline of alchemy had fostered a corpuscular view of matter that was later developed by Daniel Sennert (1572–1657), an early seventeenth-century chemist. Sennert managed to reconfigure the Aristotelian theory of matter by combining the four principles with Democritean atomism. In order to provide experimental demonstration that matter at the microlevel is made by the juxtaposition of atoms, he performed a reductio in pristinum statum (reduction into the pristine state). Although Boyle positioned himself as a "natural philosopher" against "chymical philosophers, he was in debt to Sennert, since he tacitly used his experiments and his theoretical framework in his early essays as well as in The Sceptical Chymist (1680).
In addition, Boyle's skepticism did not apply to alchemical transmutations. Until his death, he kept seeking the philosopher's stone, using the knowledge he had learned in his youth from the American chymist George Starkey (1627–1665), who also initiated Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Boyle, the advocate of public knowledge at the Royal Society, concealed his transmutational processes in secret language.
Thus, two of the celebrated founding fathers of modern science, Boyle and Newton, were dedicated believers in alchemical transmutation. Since Betty Dobbs's 1975 work, The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy: or, "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon," historians of chemistry have reconsidered the impact of Newton's bold chemical hypothesis at the end of his Opticks (1704). In the famous Query 31, Newton ventured an interpretation of chemical reactions in terms of attraction between the smallest particles of matter. A uniform attractive force allowed the smallest particles to cohere and form aggregates whose "virtue" gradually decreased as the aggregates became bigger and bigger. Whereas this hypothesis has been read as an extrapolation of gravitational physics to chemistry, it is possible to view it as a way to rationalize chemical practices that was impossible in Cartesian mechanism. Newton allowed chemists to understand and measure affinities in purely chemical terms.
Eighteenth-Century Cultures of Chemistry
Such was the program initiated by Etienne-François Geoffroy (Geoffroy the Elder; 1672–1731), who published a "Table des rapports" (table of affinities) in 1718. The substance at the head of a column is followed by all the substances that could combine with it in order of decreasing affinity—the degree of affinity being indicated by the place in the column. A substance C that displaces B from a combination AB to form AC will be located above B in the column because of its stronger affinity for A. Displacement reactions thus provided a qualitative measure of affinities and allowed predicting the outcome of reactions. Thus, chemistry came to be seen as a predictive and useful science in the eighteenth century.
It is important to stress that long before Lavoisier, chemistry had conquered the status of an autonomous academic discipline. A chemistry class had been established at the Paris Academy of Science in the late seventeenth century, whereas the physics class was only created in 1785. The chemistry class conducted systematic research programs in plant analysis and mineralogy. Not only were chemistry chairs established in a number of European universities, but also innumerable public and private courses of chemistry opened up with experimental demonstrations. They were attended by a variety of audiences: pharmacists, metallurgists, as well as gentlemen and "philosophes" who practiced chemistry as enlightened amateurs. Chemistry was promoted alongside Enlightenment values as a rational and useful knowledge that would be of benefit to economy and society. A key strategy for winning political support was the introduction of the distinction between "pure" and "applied" chemistry by Johan Gottschalk Wallerius (1709–1785), who took the chair of chemistry in Uppsala in 1753. This distinction asserted the dignity of pure chemistry while transforming the chronological priority of chemical arts into a logical dependence upon "pure" knowledge. Chemistry could thus be perceived as a legitimate academic discipline in university curricula and highly valued for its usefulness in various applications. At the same time in France, chemistry was celebrated in the context of the Encyclopédie as a model science based on empirical data rather than on a priori speculations, a science requiring craft and labor, cultivated by skilled "artists" working hard in their laboratories unlike those lazy philosophers who never took off the academic gown.
However, chemistry was more than a fashionable science. So decisive was the success of Lavoisier's revolution in the 1780s that most chemists and historians of science, according to Frederic Holmes, "viewed eighteenth-century chemistry as the stage on which the drama of the chemical revolution was performed" (Holmes, 1989, p. 3). They once described it as an obscure and inconsistent set of practical rules based on the erroneous phlogiston theory. This theory, shaped by Georg-Ernst Stahl in the early eighteenth century, explained a number of phenomena such as combustion, as well as properties such as metals or acids, by the action of an invisible principle or fire named phlogistan (from the Greek term for "burnt"). The canonical story thus culminated in Lavoisier's questioning the existence of phlogiston and its alleged presence in metals, in acids, in combustion and respiration, and consequently overthrowing the old paradigm.
When historians resist the temptation to read eighteenth-century chemistry backward, waiting for Lavoisier to arrive on the stage, they quickly realize that this standard picture was only one aspect among numerous diverse cultures of chemistry in the eighteenth century, many of which were extremely innovative. In workshops and firms, the invention of continuous processes led to what historians of industry described as "the chemical revolution." In more academic spaces, laboratory practices were also deeply changed by the study of salt solutions when wet analysis was added to the traditional fire analysis and color indicators were systematically applied to acids and alkalis. This change, especially visible in the research program conducted at the Paris Academy of Science on plant and mineral analysis, had a theoretical impact: chemists gave up the old concept of salt as a universal principle, in favor of the notion of middle salt—a substance resulting from the combination of volatile and nonvolatile salts or of alkali and acid. This redefinition subverted the traditional notion of principles as material entities as bearers of properties. Substances could present similar properties and belong to the same class despite their different constituent principles. The idea of interchangeability was reinforced by the displacement reactions that allowed the construction of affinity tables. Affinity tables favored the view that the behavior of a "mixt" (compound) depends less upon the nature of its constituent principles than on its relations with other substances. The relational identity of chemical substances minimized the importance of principles—whether they be three, four, or five—that chemists used to oppose to the mechanistic view of a "catholic matter." Moreover in a number of eighteenth-century chemistry courses—for instance in Hermann Boerhaave's (1668–1738) textbook and Guillaume-François Rouelle's (1703–1770) lectures—elements were often redefined as "agents" of chemical reactions rather than as constituent principles. Elements were consequently presented as "natural instruments" together with "artificial instruments" such as laboratory vessels, furnaces, and alembics. This pragmatic notion of elements accompanied their redefinition in operational terms as substances that could not be further decomposed by available analytic techniques.
From Phlogiston to Oxygen
In addition, the phlogiston theory was neither an overarching nor a rigid framework. The notion, which was first forged by Georg Ernst Stahl (c. 1660–1734) around 1700, was most often mixed either with Newton's views of matter that inspired salt and affinity chemistry or with various notions inspired by local mining or pharmaceutical traditions. It is therefore difficult to identify a unitary phlogiston theory that would define eighteenth-century chemistry. Rather, two distinct phlogiston theories prevailed in two different contexts. In mid-eighteenth-century France, Stahl was considered as the founder of chemistry when Rouelle and his pupils redefined Stahl's "inflammable earth" as fire. The fire principle, always invisible because it circulated from one combination to another one, imparted combustibility or metallic properties when it was "fixed." It was released during combustion and metals calcination. Indeed, there was a difficulty here: if phlogiston was released when metals calcinated, how would one explain their increase of weight? The anomaly had been known for decades and had not prevented the success of this powerful theoretical framework since, as Immanuel Kant and Lavoisier himself acknowledged, it was Stahl's merit to realize that combustion and reduction were two inverse reactions and that calcination and combustion were one and the same process despite their phenomenological dissimilarities. Lavoisier cast doubts on phlogiston when he addressed the question of weight increase in 1772. After conducting experiments of combustion of phosphorus and lead calcination with careful weighing of each ingredient and each piece of apparatus before and after the reaction took place, he concluded that the weight gain could be due to a combination with part of the air contained under the flask. Although Lavoisier was convinced that his discovery was about to cause a revolutionary change in physics and chemistry, he could not yet refute that combustion released phlogiston. Unsurprisingly many contemporary chemists adopted a compromise between the two interpretations, and Pierre-Joseph Macquer (1718–1784) redefined phlogiston as the principle of light distinct from heat. Meanwhile an "English phlogiston" emerged from pneumatic studies that gained a sound phenomenological reality through its assimilation with hydrogen.
The study of gases so much changed the landscape of chemistry in the 1770s that some contemporary chemists used the phrase "the pneumatic revolution." Although air had been considered as one of the four elements, it was considered as a mechanical agent rather than as a chemical reactant until Stephen Hales (1677–1761), a British plant physiologist, built a "pneumatic chest" for collecting gases released by physiological processes. With this apparatus chemists were able to collect the gases given off by chemical reactions, to measure their volume, and to submit them to various tests. Joseph Black (1728–1799) identified "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) in 1756; in 1766, Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) isolated "inflammable air" (hydrogen); in 1772 Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) described a dozen new airs in his Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. In 1774 Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786), a Swedish pharmacist, isolated and described a new air that made a candle flame brighter and facilitated respiration. By the same time, Priestley had also produced a similar air by the reduction of the "red precipitate of mercury," a result that he communicated to Lavoisier when he visited him in Paris in October 1774.
Lavoisier was a latecomer in the crowd of chemists "hunting" airs, his earlier interest in chemistry being related to geology. His attention was drawn to the mechanisms of fixation and release of gases when he discovered the role of air in combustion. He consequently became aware of the British works—with the help of his wife Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze-Lavoisier (1758–1836), who translated foreign publications for him. He conducted systematic experiments on "elastic fluids" that were published in his Opusucles physiques et chymiques in 1774. He repeated Priestley's reduction of the red precipitate of mercury and performed the reverse operation of calcining mercury. Whereas Priestley characterized the gas released as "deplogisticated air" Lavoisier concluded in 1778 that this gas was "the purest part of the air."
Two alternative views of gases were in competition. For the British pneumatists, the various gases isolated were composed of one single air differentiated according to the proportion of phlogiston they contained. In other terms, they fit nicely into the phlogiston paradigm. They even reinforced it because a pneumatic science, whose unquestioned leader was Priestly and which allowed a better understanding of physiological processes in plants and animals as well as medical applications, emerged. By contrast, Lavoisier came to see atmospheric air as a compound and developed a theory of gaseous state. All solid or liquid substances could be in a gaseous state depending on the quantity of caloric (or heat) they fix. Thanks to his caloric theory of gases, Lavoisier was in a better position to refute the phlogiston theory of combustion. He could account for the release of heat once he admitted that combustion consisted in a combination with a portion of atmospheric air that released its caloric. This portion of air that he first named "vital air"—later renamed oxygen—would play a key role in Lavoisier's chemistry. Not only did it explain combustion and calcinations but it was also the principle of acidity. Therefore, during the controversy that followed, Lavoisier's theory was referred to as "oxygen theory" or sometimes "antiphlogistic theory." Phlogiston was condemned as a useless chimerical entity, only to be replaced by another enigmatic principle of heat, "caloric," while the omnipresent element oxygen's being a bearer of properties was an echo of the older chemistry.
Revolution or Foundation?
Lavoisier's revolution did not condemn the old notion of elements common to all substances, although he destroyed three of the traditional four elements, fire, air, and water. The demonstration that water was not an element but a compound of two gases was made in a solemn experiment of analysis and synthesis of water set up in February 1785. It required heavy and expensive equipment designed with the help of a military engineer and with the support of an academic Commission of Study for the Improvement of Balloons. With this spectacular experiment Lavoisier won his first allies. Together they were able to take advantage of the opportunity to reform the chemical language as outlined by Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816) and build up a new "Method of Chymical Nomenclature" that reflected Lavoisier's theory and eliminated phlogiston. The new system, published in 1777, was seen as a coup d'état and sparkled a fierce controversy. The anti-phlogisticians mobilized all resources, including the creation of a new journal, Annales de chimie, in order to convince European chemists. Moreover, to defeat the last and attractive British version of phlogiston as inflammable air (hydrogen), which was articulated by Richard Kirwan (1732–1812), Madame Lavoisier translated into French his Essai sur le phlogistique (1788; Essay on phlogiston), while the anti-phlogisticians criticized the author's view in footnotes. Beyond the issue of phlogiston, numerous objections to the new language were raised by contemporary chemists concerning the choice of terms, such as "oxygen" (an acid generator according to Lavoisier's theory of acids) and "azote" (improper for animal life and a property of many other gases). Although the French "nomenclators" did not change any term, their system was finally adopted throughout Europe by 1800. But this victory did not always mean conversion to all facets of Lavoisier's chemistry. The reform of language fulfilled a long-felt need among the chemical community and it came at the right moment: textbooks were needed to train pharmacists as well as chemists for burgeoning industries. The new systematic language and Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry (1789) facilitated the teaching of chemistry.
In the context of the French Revolution, which resulted in Lavoisier's death on the guillotine and the creation of a new educational system, Lavoisier's revolution has been perceived as the destruction of premodern chemistry and the foundation of modern chemistry on a tabula rasa. However, the celebration of the founding hero overemphasizes the impact of his contribution to chemistry. Lavoisier did not overthrow the whole of chemistry. The tradition of salt and affinity chemistry remained untouched. Rather, the latter was revised and integrated in a grandiose "Newtonian dream" by Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822) in his Essai de statique chimique (1803). Lavoisier invented neither the "law of conservation of matter"—a kind of axiomatic principle tacitly assumed by all natural scientists long before him—nor the laws of chemical proportions that inspired the chemical atomism developed by the next generation of chemists.
Nineteenth-Century Chemical Atoms
Nineteenth-century chemistry has often been described as a smooth sequence of discoveries that gradually established modern chemistry. Positivist historians were content with reporting landmark events such as John Dalton's atomic theory, Amedeo Avogadro's law, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev's periodic system, and so on. In thus conveying a cumulative process, they not only distorted history but also tended to deprive past scientists of inner consistency because they failed to accept many of these "great discoveries."
One major feature of nineteenth-century chemistry is that the history of ideas did not follow the pathway that seems logical from a present-day perspective. For instance, the laws of chemical proportions did not follow from Lavoisier's program. Instead, they emerged from salt chemistry, more precisely from attempts to determine the weight or ponderous quantity of a base that could neutralize a definite quantity of acid. While the chemical revolution was drawing all attention toward Paris, two German chemists, Karl Friedrich Wenzel (1740–1793) and Jeremias Richter (1762–1807), were initiating a quantitative chemistry that they named stöichiometrie or stoichiometry (from the Greek stoicheion, or element). The main assumption that the properties of any substance depend upon the nature and proportion of its constituent elements opened up a research program for chemists whose key words were analysis and quantification (titration or dosage).
The field of stoichiometry was extended in 1802 when Joseph Louis Proust (1754–1826) applied Richter's notion of "equivalent," so far limited to reactions between acids and bases, to all combinations and formulated a general law: the relationships of the masses according to which two or several elements combine are fixed and not susceptible of continuous variations. While Berthollet questioned the generality of Proust's law of definite proportions, John Dalton (1766–1844), a professor at Manchester, made it the basis for his atomic hypothesis. He assumed that chemical combinations take place unit by unit, or atom by atom. He added a law of multiple proportions: when two elements form more than one compound, the weight proportions of the element that combines with a fixed proportion of another one are in a simple numerical ratio. Dalton's hypothesis rested on the assumption that atoms were solid and indivisible, that they were surrounded by an atmosphere of heat, that there were as many kinds of atoms as there were elements. Dalton's atoms were not the uniform and minute discrete units that structured all material bodies of ancient atomism. Rather, they were minimum and discrete units of chemical combination. And Dalton assumed that atoms would combine in the simplest way, that is, two atoms formed a binary compound. The main advantage of Dalton's hypothesis was that it allowed simple formulas. Instead of determining the composition of a body by percentages, chemists could express it in terms of constituent atoms thanks to the determination of atomic weights. Of course it was impossible to weigh individual atoms. Since Dalton could not determine this weight by using the neutrality of the compound like Richter, he elected a conventional standard. He chose hydrogen as the unit of reference. For instance, hydrogen and oxygen were known to form water, whose analysis gave the ratio 87.4 parts by weight of oxygen for 12.6 of hydrogen. If hydrogen has a weight equal to 1, the relative atomic weight of an atom of oxygen will be roughly 7. Shortly after Dalton's New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808), Joseph Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) announced that volumes of gas that combine with each other were in direct proportion and that the volume of the compound thus formed was also in direct proportion with the volume of the constituent gases. The volumetric proportions thus seemed to confirm Dalton's weight ratios.
To explain the convergence, both Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) in 1811 and André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836) in 1814 suggested that in the same conditions of temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases contain the same number of molecules. In order to admit this simple hypothesis, however, both men had to admit a second hypothesis: that when two gases joined to form a compound, the integrating molecules should divide into two parts.
From a modern perspective this hypothesis was a big step forward because it suggested the distinction between atoms and molecules. Why, then, was it rejected in the 1830s and for several decades afterward by the most prominent chemists? The rejection of Avogadro's law is a classical topos for illustrating the opposition between presentist and historicist approaches. The alleged "blindness" of nineteenth-century chemists appears as a perfectly consistent attitude once one considers that Avogadro's hypothesis of molecules formed of two atoms of the same element stood in contradiction to the theoretical framework of chemical atomism. In Dalton's theory, such diatomic molecules were physically impossible because of the repulsion between the atmospheres of heat of two identical atoms, and they were theoretically impossible in the new electrochemical paradigm set up by Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848) on the basis of his experiments on electrolytic decomposition. Elements were defined by their electric polarity, and the intensity of the positive or negative charge determined the affinity between them. Molecules of two atoms of the same element were impossible because of the repulsion between two identical electrical charges.
The distinction between atom and molecule did not directly follow from Avogadro's law. Rather it was formulated by a young chemist, Auguste Laurent (1807–1853), trained in mineralogy and crystallography. He challenged Berzelius's electrochemical view. For Berzelius all compounds resulted from the electric attraction between two elements. This dualistic view was extended to organic compounds thanks to the notion of radical—for instance the benzoyl radical discovered by Leibig—a group of atoms that, like elements, persisted through reactions. In the 1830s Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas (1800–1884) prepared trichloracetic acid by the substitution of three atoms of chlorine to three atoms of hydrogen in acetic acid. His student Laurent noticed the similarity of properties between the two acids. Electronegative atoms of chlorine could replace electropositive atoms of hydrogen without changing the properties too much. He consequently developed a unitary theory that Dumas called "type theory" in 1838: in organic compounds there exist types that persist when elements are changed. This suggested that the properties of compounds depended more on the architecture of molecules than on the nature of constituent atoms. Type theory applied to the increasing crowd of organic compounds while inorganic chemistry was still ruled by dualism.
Charles Frédéric Gerhardt (1816–1856) attempted to re-unify chemistry by extending the type theory to all compounds, using analogy as a guide. Although he admitted that we do not know anything about the actual arrangement of atoms in a molecule, he defined three types—hydrogen, water, and ammonia—as an ideal taxonomic scheme. According to Gerhardt, all compounds derived from these three types.
The theory of type implicitly indicated that atoms of different elements had different combining powers or valences. Hydrogen, for example, has a valence of one, while oxygen has two and nitrogen three. It is worth emphasizing that although nineteenth-century organic chemists such as Gerhardt and August Kekulé (1829–1896) did not believe in the actual existence of atoms and molecules, they were able to invent structural formulas that allowed them to predict and create new compounds.
The Construction of the Periodic System
Gerhardt's unitary perspective also provided the foundation for the construction of the periodic system. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907) was certainly not the first chemist who tried to classify elements on the basis of atomic weights. Van Spronsen reasonably argued that the periodic system was codiscovered by six chemists in the 1860s. However, Mendeleev adopted a different strategy. He pointed to the Karlsruhe Conference, held in 1860, as the first step toward the periodic law. This first international meeting of chemists adopted atomic weights based on Avogadro's and Gerhardt's views. From the general agreement on the distinction between atoms and molecules, Mendeleev derived another crucial distinction, between simple body and element. Since Lavoisier's famous definition of elements as nondecomposed bodies, most chemists did not distinguish between the two terms. Mendeleev, on the contrary, stressed the difference between the simple substances, empirical residues of decomposition characterized by their physical properties and molecular weights, and the abstract element defined as an invisible ingredient and characterized by its atomic weight. Mendeleev chose to classify elements rather than simple bodies because he considered them as responsible for the properties of simple and compound substances. Mendeleev was thus the first chemist who really worried about a clear definition of what was to be classified. Although abstract and unobservable, Mendeleev's elements were material entities and true individuals. Mendeleev was a staunch opponent of the hypothesis formulated by William Prout (1785–1850), which asserted that the multitude of simple substances derived from one single primary element, usually identified as hydrogen. Throughout the nineteenth century this reductionist mainstream stimulated attempts at classifying elements. Classifications were mainly aimed at tracing genealogical relations or families by grouping analogous elements in triads or families according to the numerical ratios of their atomic weights. Starting from the assumption that elements would never be divided or transmuted into one another, Mendeleev took an opposite direction. He sought unity in a natural law ruling the multiple elements, rather than in matter itself. He compared the most dissimilar elements and firmly relied on the order of increasing atomic weights. Whereas grouping elements on the basis of valences always faced the difficulty of multiple valences, Mendeleev strictly relied on the order of increasing atomic weight, which he regarded as the constant criterion of the individuality of chemical elements.
Indeed, this criterion revealed some deficiencies. It sometimes blurred strong chemical analogies (for instance between Li and Mg, Be and Al, B and Si) or induced unexpected proximities (for example, in Mendeleev's eighth group). Mendeleev struggled with these difficulties and published thirty different tables in order to better suit his system with chemical analogies. However, his abstract notion of elements allowed predictions of unknown elements. Many of these elements were confirmed during Mendeleev's lifetime and served to validate his system while guarding it from further challenges. The discovery of a dozen rare earth elements in the late nineteenth century created difficulties because they lack individual properties and have strong mutual analogies. The inert gases were not welcomed either, first, because they had not been predicted, but mainly because they did not exhibit chemical properties. The atomic weights determined by William Ramsay (1852–1916) and Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt; 1842–1919) for helium (4) and argon (40) would result in the placement of the latter between potassium and calcium according to its atomic weight. This was impossible, and the whole periodic system was in danger to collapse. Mendeleev raised doubts about the elemental nature of argon. Thanks to their sound belief in the periodic law, Ramsey and Rayleigh found a place for them at the cost of a new reversal of increasing atomic weight values and a new prediction of an intermediate element between neon and argon. A zero group was opened up that first undermined Mendeleev's notion of individual elements defined by their atomic weight. A second blow came from the discovery of electrons and radioactivity. Mendeleev desperately tried to explain this apparent anomaly with the hypothesis of confused movements of ether around heavy atoms. In this grandiose attempt to unify mechanics and chemistry, Mendeleev admitted ether in the periodic system in the 0 group. This error is instructive because it reveals the intellectual roots of Mendeleev's system. It is thus impossible to consider Mendeleev's system as a kind of precursor of quantum chemistry. Mendeleev dealt with elements and not with atoms.
Chemistry and Quantum Theory
The periodic system nevertheless served as a guide in the emergence of atomic physics, especially for Niels Bohr's (1885–1962) quantum model of the atom. Atoms of successive elements in the periodic system present an additional electron on the outermost shell. When a shell becomes full, a new shell begins to fill. Exceptions to this rule are reflected in the uneven length of periods in the periodic system.
The autonomy of chemistry thus seemed to be deeply questioned in the mid-twentieth century. If individual properties of chemical elements can be deduced from quantum theory, the theoretical foundations of chemistry lie in physics. Chemistry would be a reduced science. Many chemistry teachers struggle against these reductionist tendencies and claim that all the properties of chemical elements and compounds cannot be predicted by quantum calculus, even with the help of computer simulation. The bottom-up approach that prevails in recent materials chemistry and pharmaceutical research places great expectations in the control of individual atoms. However, those nanotechnologies also reveal that the chemist's ability to synthesize new products relies on a good deal of know-how and astute rules as much as on the fundamental laws of nature. Furthermore, recent synthetic strategies are more and more inspired by living organisms. For instance, supramolecular chemistry aims to design chemical processes that mimic the selectivity of biological processes to obtain molecular recognition without the help of genetic code. Thus, chemistry is renewing its old alliance with life science.
See also Alchemy ; Physics ; Science, History of ; Quantum .
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Levere, Trevor H. Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Newman, William R., and Lawrence M. Principe. Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Nye, Mary Jo. Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800–1940. New York and London: Twayne, 1996.
——. From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry: Dynamics of Matter and Dynamics of Disciplines, 1800–1950. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 1993.
Principe, Lawrence M. The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Rocke, Alan J. Chemical Atomism in the Nineteenth Century: From Dalton to Cannizzaro. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984.
——. The Quiet Revolution: Hermann Kolbe and the Science of Organic Chemistry. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 1993.
Van Spronsen, J. W. The Periodic System of the Chemical Elements: A History of the First Hundred Years. Amsterdam, London, and New York: Elsevier, 1969.
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
Chemistry
CHEMISTRY
CHEMISTRY. The history of early modern chemistry, understood as a body of ideas and practices related to compounding and decomposing material substances, takes us to alchemy and apothecary laboratories, artisans' workshops, metallurgists and manufacturers, scientific societies, arsenals, royal courts, and public squares. It should not be understood in terms of the victory of scientific theory over arcane beliefs, but of the changing employment of its various technologies and the contexts in and by which they were legitimized.
MATERIAL AND BODILY TECHNOLOGY
Chemistry's material technology—that is, its instruments and laboratory equipment—remained stable throughout most of the period, but was augmented by precision-oriented apparatus in the second half of the eighteenth century as the study of heat and gases, along with early industrial innovations, redirected chemical investigations. Increasingly accurate measuring devices helped bring about standardization in manufacturing ventures (e.g. Josiah Wedgwood's pottery works) while feeding debates over how to organize chemistry as an investigative enterprise. Should the heterogeneous chemical world be disciplined by analyzing qualitative or quantitative data?
The way chemical operators and investigators used their own bodies was part of this historical development and debate. As long as chemical determination rested on examining colors, smells, tastes and textures, the human senses served as crucial chemical instruments. As experimental claims increasingly relied on precise measurements by the late eighteenth century (a hallmark of the chemical revolution), sense evidence became "subjective" and, hence, a questionable foundation for proof. Chemists continued to rely on their senses, but proof became increasingly a matter of quantitative determination.
THEORY AND PRACTICE
The question of what constituted a primary chemical element was not a part of practical chemists' daily routine. Neither, prior to the late eighteenth century, was there a direct correlation between one's theoretical views and how one actually carried out chemical procedures, which can be seen by examining the impact of the mechanical philosophy on chemistry. Textbook writers such as Nicolas Lémery (1645–1715) attributed a substance's qualities to the shape of particles that composed it. But authors left such explanations behind when dealing with actual chemical operations. Robert Boyle (1627–1691), often labeled a mechanical philosopher, made a bigger impact on chemistry through his interests in practical knowledge and alchemy. Even Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) mechanism, which married particles to short-range forces, hardly touched chemical practice—although theorists such as Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707–1788) hoped chemical attraction (affinities) could be explained mathematically with Newtonian forces. Working chemists continued to learn their trade through apprenticeship and to be guided by practical recipes. Acquiring tacit knowledge and practical skills, then, were certainly as important for the historical development of chemistry as theoretical knowledge.
It is, however, historically important that matter theory became linked to chemical research in an increasingly instrumental way by the eighteenth century. Paracelsus (1493–1541), who argued for the chemical foundation of medicine (iatrochemistry), claimed that Aristotle's four elements appeared in bodies as mercury, sulfur, and salt. Mercury was the principle of volatility and fusibility, sulfur of inflammability, and salt of incombustibility. Therefore, chemists might recognize a compound not only as heavy or wet, but also as liable to specific chemical processes.
Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682) substituted three categories of earth for Paracelsus's principles and explained material change largely in terms of their combination with and release from compounds through processes such as combustion. His student George Ernst Stahl (1660–1734) further codified Becher's work, giving the name "phlogiston" (from the Greek verb "to inflame") to Becher's terra pinguis (the sulfur of inflammability) and teaching that phlogiston's presence was responsible for characteristics including metallicity, color, and inflammability. In France, the influential chemistry lecturer Guillaume François Rouelle (1703–1770) popularized the idea of phlogiston, associating it with fire. Others such as Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) identified it variously with electricity and hydrogen. Phlogiston was used to explain phenomena including combustion, calcination, and the quality of air, thereby organizing a number of research activities under a set of interconnecting theories and emphasizing the potential reversibility of chemical processes.
Others began considering the Aristotelian elements as material instruments. Stephen Hales (1677–1761) focused on the expansion of air and the way in which it could become "fixed" in bodies. Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) went further, organizing his chemistry lectures largely around the investigative consequences of considering earth, water, air, and fire as instruments that afforded specific chemical processes. A Newtonian by public pronouncement, Boerhaave actually did much more to stimulate chemical research by focusing on the reactive effects of these elemental instruments. He related fire (the substance of heat) to the primary processes of expansion and repulsion. He presented air and water as providing containers in which other particles were suspended. It wasn't long before these "instruments" themselves were subjected to chemical analysis, as investigators sought to understand whether their "instrumental" presence was chemically passive or active. Research in the second half of the eighteenth century was marked by investigations of newly discovered gases (qualitatively distinct "airs"), the role of heat, and, in the 1780s, the composition of water.
LITERARY TECHNOLOGY
Chemical theory and instrumental research practices were also linked in the way chemical knowledge came to be organized nomenclaturally and in analytical tables (chemistry's literary technology). Related to the heritage of alchemy and the various contexts in which chemical substances were discovered and used, chemical nomenclature was traditionally a colorfully unsystematic affair. Growing interest in chemical research in the second half of the eighteenth century, especially the investigation of a number of new "airs," led chemists to consider nomenclatural reform. Standard conventions for naming new substances would allow researchers from various communities to communicate. In 1787 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794), Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816), Antoine François Fourcroy (1755–1809), and Claude Simon Berthollet (1748–1822) revamped chemistry's nomenclature totally, enunciating in their Méthode de nomenclature chimique a revolutionary way to structure chemistry's investigative knowledge and practices.
Oxygen's discovery and naming provides a good example. Recognized in the 1770s as a distinct "air" responsible for combustion, supporting respiration, and the process of calcination, it was variously named the "purest part of air," "fire air," "eminently respirable air," and "dephlogisticated air." Lavoisier focused on what he considered its most far-reaching characteristic and argued that it should be called "oxygen," the "generator" of acids. Not only did he use oxygen's causal properties to argue against the existence of phlogiston, he named the substance in a way that simultaneously reflected how the relation between these properties ought to be understood and how chemists ought to pursue future research.
Traditionally, the secretive nature of many alchemical and artisanal practices had combined with chemistry's lack of institutional and disciplinary unity to work against the development of a public, systematic means of recording compositional data. This began changing when Étienne François Geoffroy (1672–1731) presented his "Table of the different relationships observed between different substances" to the French Academy of Sciences in 1718. Recording and publishing these relationships, often called affinities, provided a handy way for chemists to share and expand empirical knowledge without having to agree on their theoretical explanation. As the century progressed, affinity and solvent tables became more sophisticated (recording, for example, how relations were observed), leading chemists to hope that their field might thereby gain the certainty of a scientific discipline. As was true with nomenclatural reform, this was largely achieved by Lavoisier and his colleagues, with revolutionary results. Lavoisier's 1789 textbook Traitéélémentaire de chimie included tables whose structures redirected research along the same lines as chemistry's new nomenclature.
Lavoisier began his textbook by arguing that humans live in a Condillacian world; chemists should therefore build their discipline on a foundation of sensible facts. Chemistry's nomenclature should express only what chemists actively observed; its basic elements should be defined by laboratory procedures. In fact, Lavoisier began his "table of simple substances" with five elements that could never be isolated, but which he made responsible for fundamental chemical processes. Oxygen "generates" acidity, hydrogen "generates" water. Caloric, the substance of heat, interacts with chemical affinities to regulate composition and decomposition. In place of affinity and solvent tables, Lavoisier filled his textbook with tables that simultaneously recorded and predicted the combinatorial powers of elements such as oxygen. Together they formed an integrated research program intended to discipline chemistry.
CHEMISTRY'S INSTRUMENTALIZATION
Lavoisier's laboratory practices reflected what appeared on the pages of his book, the last third of which treated laboratory instruments. If primary elements couldn't be isolated, Lavoisier argued that their active presence could be quantitatively traced. Unmeasurable phlogiston was out, precision balances were in, as seen in his proof that water is compounded of hydrogen and oxygen. Affinities could not yet be quantified, but the effect of caloric on composition and decomposition could be quantitatively inferred by the melting of ice in an ice calorimeter—an instrument designed by Lavoisier. In general, nomenclature, instrumental theory, and measurement provided a research program for future chemists, in terms of both questions and methods for resolving them.
This culmination of chemistry's instrumentalization was, arguably, the essence of the chemical revolution. Whether others adopted Lavoisier's theories or followed the specifics of his research proposals, the modern discipline of chemistry was permanently marked by the instrumental bounds he prescibed.
See also Alchemy ; Apothecaries ; Boerhaave, Herman ; Boyle, Robert ; Lavoisier, Antoine ; Paracelsus ; Priestley, Joseph .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette. Lavoisier. Memoires d'une révolution. Paris, 1993.
Golinski, Jan. Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain 1760–1820. Cambridge, U.K., 1992.
Hannaway, Owen. The Chemist and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry. Baltimore, 1985.
Holmes, Frederick Lawrence. Eighteenth-Century Chemistry as an Investigative Enterprise. Berkeley, 1989.
Roberts, Lissa. "The Death of the Sensuous Chemist: the 'New' Chemistry and the Transformation of Sensuous Technology." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26 (1995): 503–529.
——. "Setting the Table: The Disciplinary Development of Eighteenth-Century Chemistry as Read through the Changing Structure of its Tables." In The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument, edited by Peter Dear, pp. 99–132. Philadelphia, 1991.
Lissa Roberts
Chemistry
CHEMISTRY
After physics, chemistry is often considered the paradigmatic modern science. The ethical issues associated with chemistry and chemical technologies have nevertheless been more diffuse and less systematically identified than those related to either physics or biology, although the ethical issues associated with chemistry—from worker and consumer safety to environmental pollution, in both public and private contexts, in peace and war—are as broadly present in daily life as those in any other science. The very proliferation of chemistry into analytical chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, physical chemistry—not to mention atmospheric, computational, electro-, polymer, and other forms of chemistry—emphasizes the ubiquitousness of this particular science, its technological dimensions, and thus its range of potential ethical and political engagements.
Historical Emergence
The history of chemistry may be divided into three periods: (1) alchemy (from the beginnings of Muslim and Christian knowledge of the subject until the seventeenth century), (2) classical modern chemistry (from the middle of the seventeenth century until the middle of the nineteenth), and (3) theory-based chemistry (twentieth and twenty-first centuries). According to such interpreters as Mircea Eliade and Carl Jung, alchemy was as much a psychological or spiritual practice as a physical one, involving more esoteric religious discipline than a positive science. But at the beginning of the thirteenth century, alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Ramon Llull, in association with the late medieval desacralization of nature, argued for an ethical shift toward the discovery of new methods and products that had this-worldly value. Thus, the Swiss Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (known as Paracelsus) dedicated his alchemical labors to the cure of sicknesses. According to him, salt, sulfur, and mercury in adequate proportions were a fountain of health for the human organism (the beginning of medical chemistry).
Standing at the transition from alchemy to chemistry as a positive science is the work of Robert Boyle (1627–1691). In The Sceptical Chymist he formulated the modern definition of an element as a substance that cannot be separated into simpler substances, and argued for empirical experimentation as well as the public sharing of scientific knowledge in ways that still define the scientific method. Yet he was a devout if dissenting Christian who saw his scientific studies as an extension of his spiritual life. Boyle also helped found the Royal Society (officially chartered in 1662).
The great positive achievement of the classical modern period in chemistry, and one that became the basis for its transformation into a more theory-based science, was the periodic table. While the Frenchman Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) advanced the understanding of chemical reactions, the Englishman John Dalton (1766–1844) developed atomic theory, and the Italian Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) analyzed relations between molecules and conditions of temperature and pressure (Avogadro's law)—thus creating an international republic of science with a distinctly if unspoken ethical structure. As empirical data accumulated about the properties of various substances, chemists began to consider schemas for classification according to their periodicity. The first was published in 1862, according to which properties repeated with each seven chemicals.
But the initial table mistakenly included some compounds among the elements, and it was the Russian Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834–1907) who created the periodic table as we now know it. Mendeleyev discovered patterns in the properties and atomic weights of halogens and some alkaline metals, similarities in such series as those of chlorine-potassium-calcium (Cl-K-Ca) and iodine-cesium-barium (I-Cs-Ba), and organized the elements according to chemical characteristics and physical properties in order of ascending atomic weight, as published in On the Relationship of the Properties of the Elements to Their Atomic Weights (1869).
Nevertheless, no one had yet definitively determined some atomic weights, which caused a few errors. Mendeleyev discovered he had to resituate seventeen elements according to their properties and ignore previously given atomic weights. Furthermore, he left spaces for possible new elements, given that none of those yet identified suited the properties assigned to those spaces. He thus predicted the existence of new elements such as aluminum, boron, and silicon—ten in all, of which seven were eventually confirmed.
The periodic table prepared the way for major advances in both chemical theory and practice. With regard to theory, in the early twentieth century Linus Pauling (1901–1994) employed quantum mechanics to conceptualize subatomic structures at the foundation of the orders reflected in the periodic table. This theoretical achievement at once enhanced the control of chemical processes and increased the ability to design new compounds. With regard to practice, the periodic table effectively predicted the possibility of a whole series of transuranic elements that were experimentally created by Glenn Seaborg (1912–1999). In both instances these newfound powers raised ethical and public policy questions that have been further promoted by the interdisciplinary expansion of chemistry into engineering and biology.
Industrial Chemistry and War
Starting in the eighteenth century—even prior to its theoretical enhancement—chemistry more than any other science contributed to industrial development. Just as Lavoisier is considered a founder of classic modern chemistry as a positive science, his contemporary, Nicolas Leblanc (1742–1806), who developed a process for obtaining soda (sodium carbonate) from sea salt, is credited with founding industrial chemistry. Before Leblanc France depended on foreign imports for the sodium carbonate central to its glass, soap, paper, and related industries. Leblanc's alternative, subsequently improved by the Belgian Ernest Solvay (1838–1922), was thus a major contribution to French industrial independence.
After sodium carbonate, the development of industries to produce nitrogen and fertilizers dominated applied chemical research during the nineteenth century. As contributors to such achievements, the Englishman Humphry Davy (1778–1829) and the German Justus von Liebig (1803–1873) illustrate a special combination of humanitarianism and nationalism. Davy, for instance, along with pioneering work in electrochemistry, invented the miner's safety lamp and promoted improvements in the British agricultural, tanning, and mineralogical industries. Liebig, as a professor of chemistry, pioneered the laboratory as a method of instruction and helped make Germany the world leader in chemical education and research. He also virtually created the field of organic chemistry, which he applied especially to increase German agricultural productivity.
In another contribution to industrial chemistry, the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel stabilized nitroglycerin in 1866 to make possible the fabrication of new and powerful explosives for military use. Such fabrication, along with the "dye wars" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, intensified relations between chemistry and national interests, which in turn challenged chemists to reflect on their ethical obligations. It was certainly some such reflection that led Nobel to use the profits from his own chemical industries to establish prizes in honor of "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind" in the areas of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
At the Second Battle of Ypres, France (now Belgium), in April 1915, the negative potential of chemistry was nevertheless manifest as never before when chlorine gas was employed for the first time in "chemical warfare." (The term is somewhat anomalous, because gunpowder and all explosives are also chemical products.) In this the physical chemist Fritz Haber (1868–1934) provides a provocative case study. Having previously succeeded in developing a means for synthesizing ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen for industrial and agricultural uses, Haber at the outbreak of World War I placed his laboratory in service of the German government and worked to advance the national cause. One result was his advocacy for the use of chlorine gas at Ypres. But after the war, even though he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his prewar work on ammonia synthesis, he remained isolated from the international scientific community. Feeling responsible for the German war debt, he even tried to develop a process to extract gold from seawater. But when Adolf Hitler came to power Haber's Jewish heritage forced him to flee the country, and he died in exile.
Another feature of industrial chemistry was the creation of large-scale corporations. National efforts to promote self-sufficiency in various chemicals contributed first to overproduction in such basics as fertilizers and dyes, and then to a series of national mergers and consolidations: This produced IG Farben in Germany in 1925 (creating the largest chemical manufacturer in the world), Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in England in 1926, and a DuPont–ICI alliance in the United States in 1929. The chemical industry as much as any other anticipated the kind of competition and transnational relations characteristic of the dynamics of globalization—which likewise presents special ethical challenges.
The Chemical World
Despite its contributions to warfare, the primary connotation for chemistry has been, in the words of the longtime DuPont slogan (1939–1999), "Better Things for Better Living ... through Chemistry" (the "through chemistry" was dropped in the 1980s). This vision of chemistry as a primary contributor to better living rests on the creation of a host of substitutes for traditional goods and the creation of new ones. Among substitutes, the most prominent have included first synthetic dyes and then synthetic rubber.
Among new products, plastics and pharmaceutical drugs have played major roles. Synthetic rubber and plastics are outgrowths of the huge development of polymer chemistry and discoveries of ways to use petroleum to create multiple enhancements of or substitutes for traditional materials: Formica (1910s) for wood and stone, Bakelite (patented 1907, but not widely used until the 1920s) for wood and glass, nylon (1930s) for fiber, and more. Complementing a wealth of pharmaceuticals are cosmetics, cleaning compounds, lubricants, and pesticides. From the 1960s there eventually emerged green or environmental chemistry and industrial ecology, with the concept of sustainability coming to play a significant role in chemical research and development. From the 1970s on, research and development also turned toward the design of functional materials, that is, materials fabricated according to the necessities of specific industrial sectors: reinforced plastics for the aerospace, electronics, and automobile industries; silicon for information technology hardware; and more.
In recognition of the chemical world and its pervasive transformation of the world, the American Chemical Society (ACS, founded 1876) undertook in the 1980s to publish a new kind of high school textbook, Chemistry in the Community (1988). Through this project professional chemists sought to communicate to those students who were not likely to become science majors some of the lifeworld significance of modern chemistry. The book was thus structured around community issues that had a significant chemical component more than around basic concepts and principles in chemistry itself. It was an effort to exercise professional responsibility in educating the public about the chemical world in which everyone now lived.
Ethical Issues and Responses
Against this historical profile one can identify two distinct chemistry-related ethical issues: those associated with military use and those related to commercial development—that is, the introduction into the world of increasing numbers of chemical compounds not otherwise found there. It is also possible to distinguish two kinds of response: institutional and individual.
With regard to military use, the institutional response has been the practice of military deterrence and development of a chemical weapons convention. The World War I use of chemical weapons was followed by the World War II avoidance of chemical weapons, no doubt in part because possession by all parties led to deterrence. The most dramatic use of chemical weapons since has been by what are sometimes called "rogue states" such as Iraq in the 1980s. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that entered into force in 1997 is implemented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons located in The Hague, Netherlands. CWC state party signatories agree to ban the production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons.
At the individual level, some activist organizations of scientists such as the Federation of American Scientists or International Pugwash have lobbied for limitations on the development and proliferation of chemical weapons, and in some instances called on chemical scientists and engineers to exercise professional responsibilities by not contributing to related research and development projects. One issue that has not been extensively addressed at either the institutional or individual level, although it has been discussed among scientific professionals concerned with professional responsibility, is the development of nonlethal chemical weapons, that is, weapons that do not kill but only incapacitate.
With regard to the commercial proliferation of chemicals, many governments have development institutional mechanisms for the assessment and regulation of chemicals consumed directly by the public or introduced more generally into the environment. One good example comes from the European Union (EU). According to a regulatory regime established in 1981 (Directive 67/548) all new chemicals manufactured in amounts of 10 kilograms or more must be registered and tested for health and environmental risks, but the more than 100,000 substances on the market at that time were exempted from this process. Because of testing expenses, this meant that innovation and chemical replacement was discouraged, in many instances leaving known dangerous chemicals in place.
In response the EU has proposed a policy reform called the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) system. Under the new REACH regulatory regime, the manufacture or importation of any chemical in the amount of 1 metric ton or more must be registered in a central database. The registration must include relevant information regarding properties, uses, and safe handling procedures, with a new European Chemicals Agency being charged to review the database and to supplement existing data with other relevant information. No testing is required in the absence of suspected health or environmental dangers. (It may be noted that there is no similar regulatory process in the United States. In fact the U.S. government, along with U.S. chemical producers, have lobbied against REACH, which they argue will negatively affect most goods exported to the EU.)
At the international level, in 2000 negotiations were completed on the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). With 122 negotiating countries represented, the POPs treaty aims to eliminate or severely restrict production and use of nine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and their by-products. The treaty also requires national action plans for its implementation as well as the management and reduction of chemical wastes, while providing funding for the participation of developing countries. According to POPs, trade in the covered chemicals is allowed only for purposes of environmentally sound disposal or in other limited circumstances. The "dirty dozen" substances covered by the treaty are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, toxaphene, PCBs and their by-products, dioxins, and furans. The treaty includes methods to add new chemicals. Although signed in May 2001, as of 2005 the treaty awaits ratification in the U.S. Senate. Also relevant in the international context is the Globally Harmonized System for chemical classification and labeling that was adopted by Agenda 21 (1992) and is administered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
At the same time, the pernicious consequences of some chemical substances has led to the creation of a nongovernmental program called Responsible Care, initiated in 1985 by the Canadian Chemical Producers Association and then adopted three years later by the American Chemistry Council (then called the Chemical Manufacturers Association). In 1990 it was also adopted by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. Responsible Care is an industry-administered program to certify company compliance with management standards that promote reduced emissions, worker safety, industrial security, product stewardship, public accountability, and research and development. Internationally, Responsible Care is administered by the Brussels-based International Council of Chemical Associations. One stimulus to the creation of the Responsible Care program was no doubt the 1984 chemical accident in Bhopal, India.
One other individual initiative is that of the professional codes of ethics developed by chemists. As a pioneer, the American Chemical Society requires that all professional chemists recognize their obligations to the public, to colleagues, and to science. Building on its federal charter (1937) and "The Chemist's Creed" (1965), the current "Chemist's Code of Conduct" (1994) itemizes nine basic responsibilities to the public, chemistry itself, the profession, employers, employees, students, associates, clients, and the environment. More specifically, with regard to the profession, chemists must strive for the responsible recording and reporting of scientific data, be aware of conflicts of interest and handle them properly, and avoid ethical misconduct defined as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. With regard to the public, chemists have obligations both "to serve the public interest and welfare and to further knowledge of science." Indeed, with regard to science, chemists should assure that their work is "thorough, accurate, and
... unbiased in design, implementation, and presentation."
The STS of Chemistry
The self-presentation of chemistry in its code of conduct and in its work of public education nevertheless raises some more general ethical and public policy issues. Insofar as the chemistry community might take applying chemistry and public science education as the primary ways to serve the public interest, a science, technology, and society (STS) assessment, with chemistry as the leading science, would be appropriate. STS studies in general have highlighted the importance of citizen participation in science and technology decision-making and of public debate appealing to science and technology. One framework that promotes recognition of such interactions is the concept of "post-normal science," defined as issue-driven science in which facts are uncertain, values disputed, but decisions urgent (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1990). Post-normal science calls for broader public education, of a conceptual and philosophical as well as an ethical sort, to manage the science–civil society relationship. In this sense the Chemistry in the Community model, with its stress on public problems related to chemistry, is insufficient.
From a philosophical, historical, and chemical education perspective, however, there exists a different but complementary agenda. The philosophy of chemistry, understood as a subdiscipline of the philosophy of science, has been taking shape since the mid-1980s (van Brakel 2000). Its agenda, dominated by the question of whether chemistry can be reduced to physics, has been enlarged to included classic conceptual issues in the philosophy of science (the character of representations and the structure of laws and explanations) as well as debates about ethical, aesthetic, and even sociocultural implications of chemistry. The principal periodicals dealing with such discussions are Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry (1995–present) and Foundations of Chemistry: Philosophical, Historical, Educational, and Interdisciplinary Studies of Chemistry (1999–present), the latter being the journal of the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry. Also relevant are some issues from the early 2000s (for instance, the Vol. 81, numbers 6 and 9 [2004], and the Vol. 82, number 2 [2005]) of the much older issues of the much older Journal of Chemical Education (1924–present).
In Hyle especially analyses of ethical issues have transcended particular chemical results in order to address questions that underlie all debates about regulation, responsible management, professional codes, or individual conduct. The ethics of chemistry includes questions concerning relations between the chemical community and society—that is, the importance of the particular values of chemists as such and their relation to general social values. This fundamental question can be approached from two directions: one being that of the professional community, the other being that of society. The former treats issues such as the status of the professional codes of conduct of chemical societies, the relation of a putative moral ideal to the specific ethical norms of chemistry, the moral or amoral character of chemical research, and the links that can be found between methodological values and moral values. The latter asks whether chemists have specific kinds of responsibility and duties to the society, or society any responsibility to the science of chemistry. It reflects on what lessons if any might be drawn from the positive and negative effects of chemical research (drugs, increased economic development, weapons, pollution). The responses from both perspectives will, of course, have implications for how the ethics of chemistry should be included within university curricula: as part of the methods of the science, as a technological application, or as a societal framework.
JUAN BAUTISTA BENGOETXEA
TRANSLATED BY JAMES A. LYNCH
SEE ALSO Chemical Weapons;Environmental Ethics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Chemical Society. (1988). Chemistry in the Community. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. 2nd edition, 1993. 3rd edition, 1998. 4th edition, New York: Freeman, 2002. A high-school level textbook structured around community issues related to chemistry rather than chemical concepts.
American Chemical Society. (1994). Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown. 2nd edition, 1997. 3rd edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 4th edition, 2003. This is the college-level offspring of Chemistry in the Community.
Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette, and Isabelle Stengers. (1996). A History of Chemistry, trans. Deborah van Dam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. A social and cultural history, originally published, 1993.
Eliade, Mircea. (1971). The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy, trans. Stephen Corrin. New York: Harper and Row. Originally published, 1956.
Funtowicz, Silvio O., and Jerome R. Ravetz. (1990). Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
Meyer-Thurow, Georg. (1982). "The Industrialization of Invention: A Case Study from the German Chemical Industry." Isis 73(268): 363–381.
Schummer, Joachim, ed. (2001). "Ethics of Chemistry." Special issue, Hyle 7(2): 83–167. Includes five articles on "Ethics and Science" (Giuseppe Del Re), "Ethics of Chemical Synthesis" (Joachim Schummer), "Handling Proliferation" (Pierre Laszlo), "Gifts and Commodities in Chemistry" (Jeffrey Kovac), and "The Technological Transfer Dilemma" (Brian P. Coppola). A second special issue, from 2002, on the same theme, Hyle 8(1): 3–48, includes three more articles: "'Pathological Science' Is Not Scientific Misconduct (Nor Is It Pathological)" (Henry H. Bauer), "Do the Professional Ethics of Chemists and Engineers Differ?" (Michael Davis), and "The Future of Tertiary Chemical Education: A Bildung Focus?" (Kathrine K. Eriksen).
van Brakel, Jaap. (2000). Philosophy of Chemistry. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press.
INTERNET RESOURCES
American Chemical Society. Available at http://www.chemistry.org.
Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). Available at http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_welcome_e.html.
International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). Available at http://www.icca-chem.org.
HYLE: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry. Available at http://www.hyle.org/.
REACH (European Community: Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals). Available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/reach/.
Chemistry
Chemistry
When, in the 1830s, eight authors published Bridgewater Treatises on the goodness and wisdom of God, the series included volumes on astronomy and physics, geology, psychology, human physiology, animal and vegetable physiology, zoology, and the human hand. But chemistry was stuffed into a rag-bag of a book by William Prout (1785–1850) that also covered meteorology and the function of digestion. Yet this was a time when lectures on chemistry attracted large and enthusiastic audiences, and chemistry was perceived as a fundamental science. When most science was popularized in a context of natural theology, why was chemistry seen as problematic?
In the early twenty-first century, chemicals are perceived as alarming additives, the chemical industry as a source of pollution, and fertilizers, pesticides, and explosives as dangerous to the planet and its populations. Still, people depend upon plastics, synthetic fibers, pharmaceutical drugs, and paints. Chemistry is everybody's service science, ubiquitous, but highly suspect, which points to the reason for its neglect by natural theologians. Astronomers contemplate the starry heavens; chemists understand the world in order to change it.
Chemical theology in history
The alchemist was an optimist, seeing potential gold where others saw dross. Alchemists often identified the perfecting of base metal into gold with the simultaneous spiritual perfecting of the alchemical practitioner. George Herbert's well-known poem The Elixir (1633) is indeed used as a hymn. God's creation of the cosmos from chaos was compared to an alchemical project. In the laboratory, the natural improvement of base metals could be accelerated. But in the second half of the seventeenth century Robert Boyle, one of the fathers of modern chemistry, although deeply interested and involved in alchemy, delighted especially in the mechanical or corpuscular philosophy as a basis for natural theology—comparing God to a clockmaker rather than to an alchemist. He and the other founders of the Royal Society favored the plain words of artisans rather than witty metaphysical conceits or coded messages for initiates. The oblique, resonant, and metaphorical language of alchemy gave way, especially in the 1780s in the hands of chemist Antoine Lavoisier, to sober prose approximating as far as possible to algebra. For Boyle, who was deeply devout, mechanical explanations were particularly satisfying and intelligible. He bequeathed money for lectures demonstrating the existence and wisdom of God. For succeeding generations this meant astrotheology, joyfully dwelling upon Isaac Newton's work, and physico-theology, showing how humans and other creatures were like beautifully designed little clocks living in an enormous clock.
Whereas astronomy was a science of meditative observation and calculation (with spin-offs into calendars and navigation), chemistry was active and practical. The busy chemist's task was to improve the world by isolating metals, distilling medicines, or making ceramics and dyes. Adam and Eve had been expelled from paradise and sentenced to hard labor: Chemists might be able to do something about that. As the macho English chemist Humphry Davy declared in the early nineteenth century, the chemist is godlike because he exerts a "creative energy" that "entitles him to the distinction of being made in the image of God and animated by a spark of the divine mind" (p. 361). Instead of simply commending this best of all possible worlds and its designer, therefore, chemists seek to understand it in order to change it for the better, using God-given intelligence and manual skills.
Chemistry is essentially an experimental science, concerned with the secondary qualities of color, taste, and smell, and demanding trained fingers, hands, and noses; it cannot be done on paper in an armchair in a study or library. When interrogating nature through experiments, the chemist for Davy is not a passive scholar, but a master, active with his own instruments, exerting the "godlike faculties, by which reason ultimately approaches … to inspiration." In the words of a poet, Davy's lectures disclosed "Nature's coyest secrets." Davy was a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other Romantic poets, and went from interrogation to worship of nature, as we see in his poems and last writings. Such pantheism was not unusual among scientists of the nineteenth century, who found religious experience in communing with nature both in the laboratory and on mountain tops.
The enthusiastic Samuel Parkes, a Unitarian and a chemical manufacturer, borrowing from church teaching called his elementary and successful book of 1806 The Chemical Catechism. Not only did he hope that parents would ensure that their children learned chemistry for its utility, he also sought to defend the youthful mind against "immorality, irreligion, and scepticism." The text (questions and answers) was amplified with footnotes, where chemical detail, poetry, and occasional encomia upon the creator were to be found. The "goodness of the ALMIGHTY" was particularly displayed in the various uses to which different substances may be put, though sometimes the "design of Nature" in assigning properties to things was not yet apparent. The book is pervaded with natural theology, rather than being an exposition of it. In a later popular work The Chemistry of Common Life (1855), widely known in translation as well as in English, the Presbyterian James Johnston concluded surprisingly that earthly life was insignificant in the vast general system of the universe. Humans were here solely because God, in a separate act of will, had formed beings to admire God's work. Johnston sought thus to indicate the insufficiency of natural theology without revelation, which told more of God's purposes and character than could ever be inferred from chemical discoveries.
Authors of Bridgewater Treatises were meant to confine themselves to natural theology, and Prout's was thus a straightforward exposition of the design argument, given a particular turn because of his idiosyncratic atomic theory. But chemistry was making rapid progress, and in 1844 George Fownes published his book Chemistry as Exemplifying the Wisdom and Benevolence of God, which was awarded the Actonian Prize associated with the Royal Institution, where Davy and Michael Faraday held forth. Fownes began from the position that recent studies (especially with microscopes, enormously improved at this time) had shown how exquisitely animals were adapted to their environment. Then he declared that recent discoveries in chemistry, especially in its organic branch, made it easier to use science to infer design. He urged people to look for God's activity in the commonplace and the everyday world, seeing God's hand in the simple laws of chemical combination, the ubiquity of protein, and the equilibria among reversible reactions that made animal and plant chemistry possible. Natural theology was for Fownes the highest aim of science. His book is also a good account of the current state of chemistry, being transformed at that time through the work especially of Justus Liebig, in whose wake German universities were training large numbers of professional research chemists to work in industry and academia.
Both Prout and Fownes came under friendly fire from George Wilson in his Religio Chemici (published posthumously in 1862) for their Panglossian emphasis upon unmixed and unbounded benevolence. Wilson, the first Professor of Technology in Edinburgh University in Scotland, was dogged by bereavements and illness, but supported by staunch religious faith. He believed that while chemical evidence, especially from the earth's atmosphere and the carbon and water cycles, demonstrated design, the demonstration of benevolence was another story. Introducing a gendered perspective, he noted that men read the Bridgewater Treatises and such books chiefly to learn science; women, more perceptive, did not because they were not impressed by such banal optimism. The problem of evil was real, and the dark side must be faced. If human bodies are constantly being renewed, why then do they wear out? Why are there poisons? Wilson noted the formidable weapons of destruction possessed by carnivores—"God has been very kind to the shark"—and the reality and enduring character of pain, animal and human. Evil exists alongside good, and cannot in the manner of the Manicheans be separated from it. Chemistry can show that God has love, but not that God is love. For Wilson the problem of evil is real and cannot be solved in this world, except in the light of revealed religion and true conversion. Astrotheology might be immune from such criticisms, but physico-theology along with reasoning from chemistry is undoubtedly undermined. Most of those writing natural theology had been, like William Paley, healthier and wealthier than the average person, and Wilson brought in a draft of fresh air.
The twentieth century onwards
Natural theology had made popular chemical books and lectures interesting and indeed momentous. By 1900, however, there were many students (more than in any other science) with examinations to pass and professional qualifications to gain, and their textbooks had become much drier and more factual, presenting chemical theory but not a worldview. Also, natural theology was in retreat for most of the twentieth century, under assault not only from scientific naturalists but also from theologians. And whereas chemistry had seemed a fundamental science to Davy and his contemporaries, in the early twentieth century it appeared that chemistry was being reduced to physics with the work of Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr. No doubt experiment was still necessary because the mathematical equations, based upon quantum theory, were too difficult to solve in detail, but genuine chemical explanation would in principle be in terms of physics, or so it seemed to physicists, who enjoyed enormous prestige. Philosophy of science, therefore, was for much of that century focused upon physics; chemistry seemed necessary, but not exciting. In addition, much nineteenth-century research had been done by individuals. In the twentieth century, the teams and groups that now undertook scientific research needed to include a chemist or two whatever their field, but the glamorous science was physics. Then came the elucidation of the DNA structure, making molecular biology and genetics major areas of interest; here, as in pharmacy, chemistry was essential, but still not the center of interest for the lay person following what was going on. In the United States, Creationism focused the attention of natural theologians upon Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, which by the second half of the century incorporated genetics. Only perhaps in the context of ecotheology has chemistry again impinged seriously on religious thinking.
Nevertheless, chemistry was not really reduced to physics any more than architecture has been; builders must take into account the law of gravity, and chemists building molecules cannot defy the laws of physics. Working within such constraints is the basis of art in both fields. Roald Hoffmann emphasizes the creativity that lies behind structural chemistry, designing substances never made before. He also draws attention to the visual and verbal language of chemistry and the role of illustration in the science. Lavoisier's project of abolishing richness has not been achieved, and chemistry can be fun. Hoffmann has also been involved with Shira Schmidt in reflection on Jewish traditions in the light of chemistry, seeing argument as central to both and exploring dichotomies between natural and artificial, symmetry and asymmetry, purity and impurity. This is not the traditional enterprise of natural theology, as in Fownes's book, but much less formal. For the believer, satisfying parallels and analogies reveal themselves in a coherent pattern, and metaphors are refreshed.
A collective study of Science in Theistic Contexts (2001) unsurprisingly contains no discussion of chemistry. In their Gifford Lectures, however, published as Reconstructing Nature (1998), John Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor investigate the engagement (a useful word with multiple meanings) of science with religion in a historical perspective. They devote a chapter to chemistry, with particular discussion of the theological problems that can arise from the idea that the chemist is perfecting creation. They see process as a feature of chemistry that might bear upon religion. Most people accept that a world with nylon and aluminum is better than one without, and expect more progress in applied chemistry, but people remain uneasy about nineteenth-century chemist Eleanor Ormerod's enthusiastic espousal of chemical pest-control, with its aim of exterminating noxious insects. Brooke and Cantor also look at materialism and reductionism, in which chemistry has been involved—the melancholy may be bracingly told "it's just your chemistry," and may or may not find that consoling.
What emerges is that chemistry has never been nearly as tempting for the natural theologian, wishing to put design beyond reasonable doubt, as astronomy or natural history. While the world of stinks and bangs is fun, atoms and molecules lack sublimity or accessibility. Chemistry is not only the experimental science par excellence, it is also useful in seeking to improve the world and the quality of life. That, and the idea of process, is something that should resonate with anyone pursuing natural theology, especially in an intellectual climate where the argument from design runs up against a deep prevailing skepticism. In such a broader and more sensitive natural theology, there should also be room for the metaphors and analogies from chemistry that can make it aesthetically, rather than logically, compelling.
See also Alchemy; Design; Design Argument; Ecology; Ecotheology; Natural Theology
Bibliography
boyle, robert. the vulgar notion of nature (1686), ed. m. hunter. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 1996.
brock, william h. from protyle to proton: william prout and the nature of matter, 1785–1985. bristol, uk: adam hilger, 1985.
brooke, john h., and cantor, geoffrey. reconstructing nature: the engagement of science and religion. edinburgh, uk: t&t clark, 1998.
brooke, john h.; osler, margaret j.; and van der meer, jitse m., eds. science in theistic contexts: cognitive dimensions. chicago: university of chicago press, 2001.
davy, humphry. collected works, vol. 9. london: smith elder, 1839–1840.
fownes, george. chemistry, as exemplifying the wisdom and beneficence of god. london: john churchill, 1844.
hoffmann, roald, and schmidt, shira leibowitz. old wine, new flasks: reflections on science and jewish tradition. new york: w. h. freeman, 1997.
hoffmann, roald, and torrence, vivian. chemistry imagined: reflections on science. washington, d.c.: smithsonian, 1993.
johnston, james f.w. the chemistry of common life. edinburgh, scotland: blackwood, 1855.
knight, david m. ideas in chemistry: a history of the science, 2nd edition. london: athlone press, 1995.
knight, david m. "higher pantheism." zygon 35 (2000): 603–612.
knight, david m., and kragh, helge eds. the making of the chemist: the social history of chemistry in europe 1789–1914. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 1998.
lundgren, anders, and bensaude-vincent, bernadette, eds. communicating chemistry: textbooks and their audiences 1789–1939. canton, mass.: science history publications, 2000.
nye, mary jo. before big science: the pursuit of modern chemistry and physics 1800–1940. new york: twayne, 1996.
parkes, samuel. the chemical catechism, with notes, illustrations and experiments, 3rd edition. london: lackington allen, 1808.
prout, william. chemistry, meteorology, and the function of digestion, considered with reference to natural theology. london: william pickering, 1834.
topham, jonathan r. "beyond the 'common context': the production and reading of the bridgewater treatises." isis 89 (1998): 233–262.
wilson, george. religio chemici: essays. london: macmillan, 1862.
david m. knight
Chemistry
CHEMISTRY
consolidation of a fieldinstitutionalization: academics and industry
controversies: atomism and organic composition
relations with physics and other fields
bibliography
A mature discipline by the late eighteenth century, chemistry had thrown off the taint of both manual labor and alchemy; it featured a corps of practitioners, specialized journals, practical techniques and theoretical themes, and growing prestige; and it was thoroughly modernized by the revolutionary transformation that centered on the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794). Led until the mid-nineteenth century by Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848) of Sweden, chemistry as a field of study and research increased in coherence and productivity. Chemical industry had engaged chemists throughout the century, but sustained and mutually reinforcing interactions of science and industry appeared only after midcentury. As World War I approached, reinterpretations issuing from physics as well as forces of fragmentation threatened the integrity of chemistry; but it resisted both reduction to physics and piecemeal assimilation to neighboring fields.
consolidation of a field
The chemical revolution replaced the phlogiston theory—that combustion and the formation of metallic "calces" (oxides) were losses of phlogiston—with the oxygen theory—that they were additions of oxygen; perfected a new nomenclature that designated compounds by composition; systematized pneumatic chemistry (which had revealed that air is plural and that airs could enter into chemical combination); explained, with the caloric theory of heat, changes in states of aggregation; accommodated the study of neutral salts, which had been dominant in prior practice; and established the "balance sheet method"—vital for pneumatic chemistry—that followed chemicals gravimetrically through reactions. Lavoisier's textbook, Traité élémentaire de chimie (1789; Elements of chemistry), epitomized these innovations.
Berzelius enlarged this synthesis with two further novelties: the chemical atomic theory, first articulated in England by John Dalton (1766–1844) and developed further by Berzelius; and the chemical effects of the electrical battery, devised in 1800 by the Italian Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). The atomic theory enhanced emergent notions of "stoichiometry" (the laws of chemical combination, especially definite and multiple proportions) and suggested that the law of definite proportions distinguishes compounds from mixtures. Berzelius undertook a vast project of chemical analysis that met new standards of precision. His goal: to distinguish compounds from mixtures and analyze all natural and artificial compounds. Both Berzelius and Humphry Davy (1778–1829) of England showed that the battery could decompose substances into electrically opposing constituents (e.g., salts into acids and bases). Berzelius reconceived inorganic chemistry by (1) according bases—formerly seen as passive substrates for coagulation of acids—positive properties, opposite to those of acids; and (2) anticipating that any compound, saline or not, consisted of paired, electrically opposing components. He thus characterized all compounds both quantitatively and qualitatively (by determining the constituents stoichiometrically and characterizing them electro-chemically). Berzelius revised Lavoisier's nomenclature to suit, replacing its French with Latin paradigms; and he devised the still-used symbols of composition (one- or two-letter abbreviations for the elements and superscripts—later changed to subscripts—for the numbers of atoms). The culmination of his work, comparable to Lavoisier's Traité, lay in his Essai sur la théorie des proportions chimiques (1819; Essay on the theory of chemical proportions) and his atomic weight tables of 1826.
This "electrochemical dualism" guided the next generation of chemists. Berzelius himself pursued it in mineralogy, a Swedish and German antecedent of academic chemistry, and in the nascent organic chemistry (of plant and animal substances). In mineralogy, Berzelius in 1814 showed that silica, traditionally thought a base, was an acid and that minerals were complex silicates; and his student Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794–1863) in 1818 discovered isomorphism, in which minerals preserve their crystal forms despite indefinite substitutions of some elements by chemically related ones. With minerals thus subjected to dualism, Berzelius boosted the subdiscipline of crystal chemistry. In organic chemistry, his work was informed by the claim of Lavoisier and his colleague Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822) that organic compounds consist chiefly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; by Lavoisier's belief that groupings of these elements (organic radicals) behaved like individual elements; and by Berzelius's own conclusion that organic matter occurred in mixtures of similar compounds. The task was therefore to separate distinct compounds from generic mixtures, analyze them, and interpret their composition dualistically. By 1814 Berzelius exemplified this approach, having performed among the first precise analyses of organic compounds. Thus conceived, organic chemistry dominated the discipline from the 1830s.
institutionalization: academics and industry
From 1800, chemistry was increasingly institutionalized academically. In Sweden, posts in governmental laboratories and mining and metallurgical enterprises were complemented with professorial positions, the first Swedish chair in chemistry appearing at Uppsala University in 1750. Berzelius, a medical graduate, held a post at the Karolinska (medical) Institute in Stockholm. In Britain, academics grew dominant after midcentury. In France, professorial posts appeared in institutions of applied science (schools or faculties of medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, mining, and engineering), where the distinction between pure and applied science encouraged teaching of theoretical chemistry and enhanced its social value. In Germany, institutionalization descended from pharmacy, especially the institute for chemical education and research-training founded in 1826, initially as a pharmacy school, by Justus von Liebig (1803–1873) at the University of Giessen and perpetuated by his students, notably August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818–1892), in London and Berlin. It became the model for the proliferating German research institutes in natural sciences, the most prominent sites for chemical education and research-training in the nineteenth century. The laboratory and related resources commanded by German professors of chemistry fostered the growth and disciplinary identity of the field.
In the first half of the century, heavy chemical industry—especially production of "soda" (sodium carbonate) from sea salt by the Leblanc process, the lead-chamber process to produce sulfuric acid and its improvement by the Gay-Lussac tower, and the use of chlorine products in bleaching—involved inventors, entrepreneurs, and chemists, but no characteristic patterns dominated their relations.
controversies: atomism and organic composition
Disagreements persisted about the atomic theory and organic composition. Though distinct, in their resolution these questions were linked. Most chemists, seeing atoms as hypothetical, insisted on empirical "equivalent weights," eschewed determining the supposed actual weights and formulas, and relied on conventions. The diversity of these conventions, however, hindered communication and obscured or distorted relationships among substances. In inorganic chemistry, theoretical commitments and experimental anomalies hindered the reform of atomic weights and formulas; but problems in organic chemistry fostered it. Dualism was undermined by the discovery of substitution—in which electronegative chlorine, for example, could replace electropositive hydrogen with little change in properties—and by other evidence that organic radicals were mutable. Berzelius insisted that inorganic chemistry remain the template for organic; younger chemists demanded the reverse. Charles-Frédéric Gerhardt (1816–1856) and Auguste Laurent (1807–1853) of France
portrayed the diverse reactions of organic compounds as substitutions of atoms by radicals in simple, inorganic types, and they founded this "type" theory on reforms of atomic weights and formulas. Their successors, especially Alexander Williamson (1824–1904) of Britain, Hofmann, and Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz (1829–1896) of Germany, proposed a new, structural theory of organic chemistry, relying on the reforms of Gerhardt and Laurent and exploiting the newly conceived property of valence to interpret chemical combination. To foster consensus on atomic weights, structural chemists called the first international chemical congress, at Karlsruhe, in 1860. The persuasive analysis of atomic weights presented there by the Italian Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826–1910) encouraged gradual agreement. Organic chemistry now flourished. Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (1852–1911) of Holland and Joseph-Achille Le Bel (1847–1930) of France pioneered the analysis of the spatial arrangements of atoms in compounds, and others synthesized many new substances.
Chemistry also spawned additional subdisciplines. Biochemistry (initially, "physiological chemistry"), emerging from both chemistry and physiology, was lodged in German physiology institutes. Physical chemistry, emergent from disparate strands, focused on solutions, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, and spectroscopy. Two of its leaders, Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) and van't Hoff, founded its first journal, Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie (1887;Journal of physical chemistry). The field flourished in Germany and after 1900 in the United States. Inorganic chemistry, long overshadowed by organic, reemerged following the creation (in 1869) by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834–1907) of the periodic table, itself resting on the post-Karlsruhe consensus; and coordination chemistry, created in the 1890s largely by Alfred Werner (1866–1919) of Germany.
From the 1850s, artificial dyestuffs and their control and synthesis by structural organic chemists transformed both chemical industry and academic chemistry. Firms proliferated in Britain and France, but from about 1870, German firms, benefiting from the expertise of academic chemists and new patterns of interaction with them, grew dominant. They created industrial research laboratories staffed by academically trained chemists; and they diversified into fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural chemicals. Their near monopolies often lasted until the end of World War II.
relations with physics and other fields
Physics had long interacted episodically with chemistry, but the advent of physical chemistry announced increasing intrusions. The discovery of the electron in 1897 by the English physicist Joseph John Thomson (1856–1940) and the demonstration by the New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) that atomic mass is concentrated in the nucleus led to new theories of valence on the part of the American academic physical chemists Gilbert N. Lewis (1875–1946) and Irving Langmuir (1881–1957), who found in the electron pair the basis of the chemical bond. Physicists' studies of atomic structure now distinguished the elements by atomic number, representing the positive charge on the nucleus, rather than by atomic weight, and permitted the accommodation of isotopes into the periodic table. After World War I, quantum mechanics transformed interpretations of chemical bonds and molecular structure. So profound have been the influence of physics and of the proliferating chemical subdisciplines, interdisciplinary interactions, and practical applications of chemistry, that some analysts regard the field as having lost its core identity in the twentieth century; others hold that the theoretically driven questions and the persistent importance of laboratory techniques, departmental structures, and teaching commitments of the professoriate have preserved the integrity of the field.
See alsoEducation; Science and Technology.
bibliography
Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette, and Isabelle Stengers. A History of Chemistry. Translated by Deborah van Dam. Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1996.
Knight, David, and Helge Kragh. The Making of the Chemist: The Social History of Chemistry in Europe, 1789–1914. Cambridge, U.K., 1998.
Levere, Trevor H. Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball. Baltimore, Md., 2001.
Melhado, Evan M., and Tore Frängsmyr, eds. Enlightenment Science in the Romantic Era: The Chemistry of Berzelius and Its Cultural Setting. New York, 1992. Reprint, New York, 2003.
Travis, Anthony S. The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry in Western Europe. Bethlehem, Pa., 1993.
Evan M. Melhado
Chemistry
CHEMISTRY
CHEMISTRY is the study of the chemical and physical change of matter.
Early U.S. Chemistry and Chemical Societies
The beginning of chemistry in the United States came in the form of manufacturing goods such as glass, ink, and gunpowder. In the mid-1700s, some academic instruction in chemistry started in Philadelphia. The earliest known academic institution to formally teach chemistry was the medical school of the College of Philadelphia, where Benjamin Rush was appointed the chair of chemistry in 1769. Not only was Rush the first American chemistry teacher, he may have been the first to publish a chemistry textbook written in the United States. In 1813, the Chemical Society of Philadelphia published the first American chemical journal, Transactions. Although other chemical societies existed at that time, the Philadelphia Chemical Society was the first society to publish its own journal. Unfortunately, the journal and chemical society lasted only one year.
Sixty years later, in 1874, at Joseph Priestley's home in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, a number of renowned scientists gathered to celebrate Priestley's 1774 discovery of oxygen. It was at this gathering that Charles F. Chandler proposed the concept of an American chemical society. The proposal was turned down, in part because the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) had a chemical section that provided an adequate forum for assembly and debate. Two years later, a national society, based in New York and called the American Chemical Society, was formed with John W. Draper as its first president. Since New York chemists dominated most of the meetings and council representative positions, the Washington Chemical Society was founded in 1884 by two chemists based in Washington, D.C., Frank W. Clarke and Harvey W. Wiley. In 1890, the American Chemical Society constitution was changed to encourage the formation of local sections, such as New York, Washington, and other chemical societies in the United States, thereby leading to a national organization. By 1908, the society had approximately 3,400 members, outnumbering the German Chemical Society, which at that time was the center of world chemistry. Today, the American Chemical Society has some 163,503 members, and the United States is considered the center of world chemistry. In addition to its premier journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the society also publishes several other journals that are divisional in nature, including the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and Biochemistry. The society also produces a publication called Chemical Abstracts, which catalogs abstracts from thousands of papers printed in chemical journals around the world.
European Influences
Although the various disciplines of chemistry—organic, inorganic, analytical, biochemistry, and physical chemistry—have a rich American history, they have also been influenced by European, especially German, chemists. The influence of physical chemistry on the development of chemistry in the United States began with American students who studied under a number of German chemists, most notably the 1909 Nobel Prize winner, Wilhelm Ostwald. In a 1946 survey by Stephen S. Visher, three of Ostwald's students were recognized as influential chemistry teachers—Gilbert N. Lewis, Arthur A. Noyes, and Theodore W. Richards. Of these three, Richards would be awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize for his contributions in accurately determining the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements. Lewis and Noyes would go on to play a major role in the development of academic programs at institutions such as the University of California at Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Caltech. While at these institutions Lewis and Noyes attracted and trained numerous individuals, including William C. Bray, Richard C. Tolman, Joel H. Hildebrand, Merle Randall, Glenn T. Seaborg, and Linus Pauling. These individuals placed physical chemistry at the center of their academic programs and curricula. Students from these institutions, as well as other universities across America, took the knowledge they gained in physical chemistry to places like the Geophysical Laboratories, General Electric, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and Bausch and Lomb.
Influence could also flow from America to Europe, as it did with one of the earliest great American chemists, J. Willard Gibbs (1839–1903). Gibbs, educated at Yale University, was the first doctor of engineering in the United States. His contribution to chemistry was in the field of thermodynamics—the study of heat and its transformations. Using thermodynamic principles, he deduced the Gibbs phase rule, which relates the number of components and phases of mixtures to the degrees of freedom in a closed system. Gibbs's work did not receive much attention in the United States due to its publication in a minor journal, but in Europe his ideas were well received by the physics community, including Wilhelm Ostwald, who translated Gibbs's work into German.
A second influence from Europe came around the 1920s, when a very bright student from Caltech named Linus Pauling went overseas as a postdoctoral fellow for eighteen months. In Europe, Pauling spent time working with Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Arnold Sommerfeld, Walter Heitler, and Fritz London. During this time, Pauling trained himself in the new area of quantum mechanics and its application to chemical bonding. A significant part of our knowledge about the chemical bond and its properties is due to Pauling. Upon his return from Europe, Pauling went to back to Caltech and in 1950 published a paper explaining the nature of helical structures in proteins.
At the University of California at Berkeley, Gilbert N. Lewis directed a brilliant scientist, Glenn T. Seaborg. Seaborg worked as Lewis's assistant on acid-base chemistry during the day and at night he explored the mysteries of the atom. Seaborg is known for leading the first group to discover plutonium. This discovery would lead him to head a section on the top secret Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb. Seaborg's second biggest achievement was his proposal to modify the periodic table to include the actinide series. This concept predicted that the fourteen actinides, including the first eleven transuranium elements, would form a transition series analogous to the rare-earth series of lanthanide elements and therefore show how the transuranium elements fit into the periodic table. Seaborg's work on the transuranium elements led to his sharing the 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Edwin McMillan. In 1961, Seaborg became the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, where he remained for ten years.
Perhaps Seaborg's greatest contribution to chemistry in the United States was his advocacy of science and mathematics education. The cornerstone of his legacy on education is the Lawrence Hall of Science on the Berkeley campus, a public science center and institution for curriculum development and research in science and mathematics education. Seaborg also served as principal investigator of the well-known Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) program, which publishes the many classes, workshops, teacher's guides, and handbooks from the Lawrence Hall of Science. To honor a brilliant career by such an outstanding individual, element 106 was named Seaborgium.
Twentieth-Century Research and Discoveries
Research in the American chemical industry started in the early twentieth century with the establishment of research laboratories such as General Electric, Eastman Kodak, AT&T, and DuPont. The research was necessary in order to replace badly needed products and chemicals that were normally obtained from Germany. Industry attracted re-search chemists from their academic labs and teaching assignments to head small, dynamic research groups. In 1909, Irving Langmuir was persuaded to leave his position as a chemistry teacher at Stevens Institute of Technology to do research at General Electric. It was not until World War I that industrial chemical research took off. Langmuir was awarded a Nobel Prize for his industrial work. In the early 1900s, chemists were working on polymer projects and free radical reactions in order to synthesize artificial rubber. DuPont hired Wallace H. Carothers, who worked on synthesizing polymers. A product of Carothers's efforts was the synthesis of nylon, which would become DuPont's greatest moneymaker. In 1951, modern organometallic chemistry began at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with the publication of an article in the journal Nature on the synthesis of an organo-iron compound called dicyclopentadienyliron, better known as ferrocene. Professor Peter Pauson and Thomas J. Kealy, a student, were the first to publish its synthesis, and two papers would be published in 1952 with the correct predicted structure. One paper was by Robert Burns Woodward, Geoffrey Wilkinson, Myron Rosenblum, and Mark Whiting; the second was by Ernst Otto Fischer and Wolfgang Pfab. Finally, a complete crystal structure of ferrocene was published in separate papers by Phillip F. Eiland and Ray Pepinsky and by Jack D. Dunitz and Leslie E. Orgel. The X-ray crystallographic structures would confirm the earlier predicted structures. Ferrocene is a "sandwich" compound in which an iron ion is sandwiched between two cyclopentadienyl rings. The discovery of ferrocene was important in many aspects of chemistry, such as revisions in bonding concepts, synthesis of similar compounds, and uses of these compounds as new materials. Most importantly, the discovery of ferrocene has merged two distinct fields of chemistry, organic and inorganic, and led to important advances in the fields of homogeneous catalysis and polymerization.
Significant American achievements in chemistry were recognized by the Nobel Prize committee in the last part of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first century. Some examples include: the 1993 award to Kary B. Mullis for his work on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); the 1996 award to Robert F. Curl Jr. and Richard E. Smalley for their part in the discovery of C60, a form of molecular carbon; the 1998 award to John A. Pople and Walter Kohn for the development of computational methods in quantum chemistry; the 1999 award to Ahmed H. Zewail for his work on reactions using femtosecond (10-14 seconds) chemistry; the 2000 award to Alan G. MacDiarmid and Alan J. Heeger for the discovery and development of conductive polymers; and the 2001 award to William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless for their work on asymmetric synthesis. The outcomes of these discoveries are leading science in the twenty-first century. The use of PCR analysis has contributed to the development of forensic science. The discovery C60 and related carbon compounds, known as nanotubes, is leading to ideas in drug delivery methods and the storage of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The computational tools developed by Pople and Kohn are being used to assist scientists in analyzing and designing experiments. Femtosecond chemistry is providing insight into how bonds are made and broken as a chemical reaction proceeds. Heeger and MacDiarmid's work has led to what is now known as plastic electronics—devices made of conducting polymers, ranging from light-emitting diodes to flat panel displays. The work by Knowles and Sharpless has provided organic chemists with the tools to synthesize compounds that contain chirality or handedness. This has had a tremendous impact on the synthesis of drugs, agrochemicals, and petrochemicals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brock, William H. The Norton History of Chemistry. New York: Norton, 1993.
———. The Chemical Tree: A History of Chemistry. New York: Norton, 2000.
Greenberg, Arthur. A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science. New York: Wiley, 2000.
Servos, John W. Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: The Making of Science in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Jeffrey D.Madura
See alsoAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science ; Biochemistry ; Chemical Industry ; Petrochemical Industry .
Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the study of the composition of matter and the changes that take place in that composition. If you place a bar of iron outside your window, the iron will soon begin to rust. If you pour vinegar on baking soda, the mixture fizzes. If you hold a sugar cube over a flame, the sugar begins to turn brown and give off steam. The goal of chemistry is to understand the composition of substances such as iron, vinegar, baking soda, and sugar and to understand what happens during the changes described here.
History
Both the term chemistry and the subject itself grew out of an earlier field of study known as alchemy. Alchemy has been described as a kind of pre-chemistry, in which scholars studied the nature of matter—but without the formal scientific approach that modern chemists use. The term alchemy is probably based on the Arabic name for Egypt, al-Kimia, or the "black country."
Ancient scholars learned a great deal about matter, usually by trial- and-error methods. For example, the Egyptians mastered many technical procedures such as making different types of metals, manufacturing colored glass, dying cloth, and extracting oils from plants. Alchemists of the Middle Ages (400–1450) discovered a number of elements and compounds and perfected other chemical techniques, such as distillation (purifying a liquid) and crystallization (solidifying substances into crystals).
Words to Know
Analytical chemistry: That area of chemistry that develops ways to identify substances and to separate and measure the components in a compound or mixture.
Inorganic chemistry: The study of the chemistry of all the elements in the periodic table except for carbon.
Organic chemistry: The study of the chemistry of carbon compounds.
Physical chemistry: The branch of chemistry that investigates the properties of materials and relates these properties to the structure of the substance.
Qualitative analysis: The analysis of compounds and mixtures to determine the elements present in a sample.
Quantitative analysis: The analysis of compounds and mixtures to determine the percentage of elements present in a sample.
The modern subject of chemistry did not appear, however, until the eighteenth century. At that point, scholars began to recognize that research on the nature of matter had to be conducted according to certain specific rules. Among these rules was one stating that ideas in chemistry had to be subjected to experimental tests. Some of the founders of modern chemistry include English natural philosopher Robert Boyle (1627–1691), who set down certain rules on chemical experimentation; Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848), who devised chemical symbols, determined atomic weights, and discovered several new elements; English chemist John Dalton (1766–1844), who proposed the first modern atomic theory; and French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794), who first explained correctly the process of combustion (or burning), established modern terminology for chemicals, and is generally regarded as the father of modern chemistry.
Goals of chemistry
Chemists have two major goals. One is to find out the composition of matter: to learn what elements are present in a given sample and in what percentage and arrangement. This type of research is known as analysis. A second goal is to invent new substances that replicate or that are
different from those found in nature. This form of research is known as synthesis. In many cases, analysis leads to synthesis. That is, chemists may find that some naturally occurring substance is a good painkiller. That discovery may suggest new avenues of research that will lead to a synthetic (human-made) product similar to the natural product, but with other desirable properties (and usually lower cost). Many of the substances that chemistry has produced for human use have been developed by this process of analysis and synthesis.
Fields of chemistry
Today, the science of chemistry is often divided into four major areas: organic, inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistry. Each discipline investigates a different aspect of the properties and reactions of matter.
Organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon compounds. That definition sometimes puzzles beginning chemistry students because more than 100 chemical elements are known. How does it happen that one large field of chemistry is devoted to the study of only one of those elements and its compounds?
The answer to that question is that carbon is a most unusual element. It is the only element whose atoms are able to combine with each other in apparently endless combinations. Many organic compounds consist of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of carbon atoms joined to each other in a continuous chain. Other organic compounds consist of carbon chains with other carbon chains branching off them. Still other organic compounds consist of carbon atoms arranged in rings, cages, spheres, or other geometric forms.
The scope of organic chemistry can be appreciated by knowing that more than 90 percent of all compounds known to science (more than 10 million compounds) are organic compounds.
Organic chemistry is of special interest because it deals with many of the compounds that we encounter in our everyday lives: natural and synthetic rubber, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils, cloth, plastics, paper, and most of the compounds that make up all living organisms, from simple one-cell bacteria to the most complex plants and animals.
Inorganic chemistry. Inorganic chemistry is the study of the chemistry of all the elements in the periodic table except for carbon. Like their cousins in the field of organic chemistry, inorganic chemists have provided the world with countless numbers of useful products, including fertilizers, alloys, ceramics, household cleaning products, building materials, water softening and purification systems, paints and stains, computer chips and other electronic components, and beauty products.
The more than 100 elements included in the field of inorganic chemistry have a staggering variety of properties. Some are gases, others are solid, and a few are liquid. Some are so reactive that they have to be stored in special containers, while others are so inert (inactive) that they virtually never react with other elements. Some are so common they can be produced for only a few cents a pound, while others are so rare that they cost hundreds of dollars an ounce.
Because of this wide variety of elements and properties, most inorganic chemists concentrate on a single element or family of elements or on certain types of reactions.
Physical chemistry. Physical chemistry is the branch of chemistry that investigates the physical properties of materials and relates these properties to the structure of the substance. Physical chemists study both
organic and inorganic compounds and measure such variables as the temperature needed to liquefy a solid, the energy of the light absorbed by a substance, and the heat required to accomplish a chemical transformation. A computer is used to calculate the properties of a material and compare these assumptions to laboratory measurements. Physical chemistry is responsible for the theories and understanding of the physical phenomena utilized in organic and inorganic chemistry.
Analytical chemistry. Analytical chemistry is that field of chemistry concerned with the identification of materials and with the determination of the percentage composition of compounds and mixtures. These two lines of research are known, respectively, as qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Two of the oldest techniques used in analytical chemistry are gravimetric and volumetric analysis. Gravimetric analysis refers to the process by which a substance is precipitated (changed to a solid) out of solution and then dried and weighed. Volumetric analysis involves the reaction between two liquids in order to determine the composition of one or both of the liquids.
In the last half of the twentieth century, a number of mechanical systems have been developed for use in analytical research. For example, spectroscopy is the process by which an unknown sample is excited (or energized) by heating or by some other process. The radiation given off by the hot sample can then be analyzed to determine what elements are present. Various forms of spectroscopy are available (X-ray, infrared, and ultraviolet, for example) depending on the form of radiation analyzed.
Other analytical techniques now in use include optical and electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (MRI; used to produce a three-dimensional image), mass spectrometry (used to identify and find out the mass of particles contained in a mixture), and various forms of chromatography (used to identify the components of mixtures).
Other fields of chemistry. The division of chemistry into four major fields is in some ways misleading and inaccurate. In the first place, each of these four fields is so large that no chemist is an authority in any one field. An inorganic chemist might specialize in the chemistry of sulfur, the chemistry of nitrogen, the chemistry of the inert gases, or in even more specialized topics.
Secondly, many fields have developed within one of the four major areas, and many other fields cross two or more of the major areas. For an example of specialization, the subject of biochemistry is considered a subspecialty of organic chemistry. It is concerned with organic compounds that occur within living systems. An example of a cross-discipline subject is bioinorganic chemistry. Bioinorganic chemistry is the science dealing with the role of inorganic elements and their compounds (such as iron, copper, and sulfur) in living organisms.
At present, chemists explore the boundaries of chemistry and its connections with other sciences, such as biology, environmental science, geology, mathematics, and physics. A chemist today may even have a socalled nontraditional occupation. He or she may be a pharmaceutical salesperson, a technical writer, a science librarian, an investment broker, or a patent lawyer, since discoveries by a traditional chemist may expand and diversify into a variety of fields that encompass our whole society.
[See also Alchemy; Mass spectrometry; Organic chemistry; Qualitative analysis; Quantitative analysis; Spectroscopy ]
Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemists, theories, and reactions
Chemistry is the science that studies why materials have their characteristic properties, how these particular qualities relate to their simplest structure, and how these properties can be modified or changed. The term chemistry is derived from the word alchemist, which finds its roots in the Arabic name for Egypt al-Kimia. The Egyptians are credited with being the first to study chemistry. They developed an understanding of the materials around them and became very skillful at making different types of metals, manufacturing colored glass, dying cloth, and extracting oils from plants. Countless people have used chemistry throughout the ages.
The first alchemist known to have applied the scientific principles to alchemy was English physicist and chemist Robert Boyle (1627–1691). Boyle’s application of scientific methodology resulted in the formation on the critical gas laws (named for Boyle) that states that the product of pressure and volume of an ideal gas is constant, given constant temperature. Modern chemistry was also pioneered by French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) who defined the law of conservation of mass in 1783. Another important chemist in the development of chemistry was Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907), who created the periodic table of chemical elements.
Today, chemistry is divided into four traditional areas: organic, inorganic, analytical, and physical. Each discipline investigates a different aspect of the properties and reactions of the substances in the universe. The different areas of chemistry have the common goal of understanding and manipulating matter.
Organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is the study of the chemistry of materials and compounds that contain carbon (C) atoms. Carbon atoms are one of the few elements that bond to each other. This allows vast variation in the length of carbon atom chains and an immense number of different combinations of carbon atoms, which form the basic structural framework for millions of molecules.
The word organic is used because most natural compounds contain carbon atoms and are isolated from either plants or animals. Rubber, vitamins, cloth, and paper represent organic materials people come in contact with on a daily basis. Organic chemistry explores how to change and connect compounds based on carbon atoms in order to synthesize new substances with new properties. Organic chemistry is the backbone in the development and manufacture of many products produced commercially, including drugs, food preservatives, perfumes, food flavorings, dyes, and many more.
Discoveries in organic chemistry can have both positive and negative effects, for example, scientists discovered that chlorofluorocarbon containing compounds, or CFCs, are depleting the ozone layer around the Earth. One of these CFCs was used in refrigerators to keep food cold. Organic chemistry was used to make new carbon atom containing compounds that offer the same physical capabilities as the chlorofluorocarbons in maintaining a cold environment, but do not deplete the ozone layer. These compounds are called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, and are not as destructive to Earth’s protective layer.
Inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry studies the chemistry of all the elements in the periodic table and their compounds, except for carbon-hydrogen compounds. Inorganic chemistry is a very diverse field, because it investigates the properties of many different elements. Some materials are solids and must be heated to extremely high temperatures to react with other substances. For example, the powder responsible for the light and color of fluorescent light bulbs is manufactured by heating a mixture of various solids to very high temperatures in a poisonous atmosphere. An inorganic compound may alternatively be very unreactive and require special techniques to change its chemical composition. Electronic components such as transistors, diodes, computer chips, and various metal compounds are all constructed using inorganic chemistry. In order to make a new gas for refrigerators that does not deplete the ozone layer, inorganic chemistry was used to make a metal catalyst that facilitated the large scale production of HFCs for use throughout the world.
Physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the branch of chemistry that investigates the physical properties of materials and relates these properties to the structure of the substance. Physical chemistry studies both organic and inorganic compounds and measures such variables as the temperature needed to liquefy a solid, the energy of the light absorbed by a substance, and the heat required to accomplish a chemical transformation. Computers may be used to calculate the properties of a material and compare these assumptions to laboratory measurements. Physical chemistry is responsible for the theories and understanding of the physical phenomenon utilized in organic and inorganic chemistry. In the development of the new refrigerator gas, physical chemistry was used to measure the physical properties of the new compounds and determine which one would best serve its purpose.
Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry is the area of chemistry that develops methods to identify substances by analyzing and quantifying the exact composition of a mixture. A material may be identified by measurement of its physical properties. Examples of physical properties include the boiling point (the temperature at which the physical change of state from a liquid to a gas occurs) and the refractive index (the angle at which light is bent as it shines though a sample). Materials may also be identified by their reactivity with various known substances. The characteristics that distinguish one compound from another are also used to separate a mixture of materials into their component parts. If a liquid contains two materials with different boiling points, then the liquid can be separated into its components by heating the mixture until one of the materials boils out and the other remains. By measuring the amount of the remaining liquid, the component parts of the original mixture can be calculated. Analytical chemistry can be used to develop instruments and chemical methods to characterize, separate, and measure materials. In the development of HFCs for refrigerators, analytical chemistry was used to determine the structure and purity of the new compounds tested.
KEY TERMS
Analytical chemistry —That area of chemistry that develops ways to identify substances and to separate and measure the components in a mixture.
Inorganic chemistry —The study of the chemistry of all the elements in the periodic table and their compounds except for carbon-hydrogen compounds.
Organic chemistry —The study of the chemistry of materials and compounds that contain carbon atoms.
Physical chemistry —The branch of chemistry that investigates the properties of materials and relates these properties to the structure of the substance.
Chemists, theories, and reactions
Chemists are scientists who work in the university, the government, or the industrial laboratories investigating the properties and reactions of materials. Most chemists, after learning about chemistry in general, will specialize in a particular subfield of chemistry. These people research new theories and chemical reactions as well as synthesize or manufacture drugs, plastics, and chemicals. Today’s chemists also explore the boundaries of chemistry and its connection with the other sciences, such as bioinformatics, biology, environmental science, geology, materials science, mathematics, medicine, nanotechnology, pharmacy, and physics.
Applications of new theories and reactions are important in the field of chemical technology. Many of the newest developments are on the atomic and molecular level. One example is the development of smart molecules, such as a polymer chain, that could replace fiber optic cable. The chemist of today may have many so-called non-traditional occupations, such as a pharmaceutical salesperson, a technical writer, a science librarian, an investment broker, or a patent lawyer, since discoveries by a traditional chemist may expand and diversify into a variety of fields that encompass the whole society.
Resources
BOOKS
Atkins, Peter W. Atkins’ Physical Chemistry. Oxford, UK, and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Carey, Francis A. Organic Chemistry. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
Christian, Gary D. Analytical Chemistry. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004.
Hoffman, Robert V. Organic Chemistry: An Intermediate Text. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience, 2004.
Housecroft, Catherine E. Inorganic Chemistry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.
Siekierski, Slawomir. Concise Chemistry of the Elements. Chichester, UK: Horwood Publishing, 2002.
Stwertka, Albert. A Guide to the Elements. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Tro, Nivaldo J. Introductory Chemistry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2006.
Chemistry
Chemistry
Alchemy . The English word alchemy comes from the Arabic word al-chemi (the change), which is also the root of the English word chemistry . The roots of alchemy can be traced to ancient cultures ranging from China to Egypt, where it developed from a mixture of religion, philosophy, and science. While modern people have often dismissed alchemy as an occult (or magical) pseudoscience, historians of science have come to realize that it was a serious form of scientific research. In fact, alchemists made important contributions to chemistry, medicine, and physics.
Scientific Method . Perhaps their most valuable contribution was what is now known as the scientific method, which was a revolutionary development when the Arab alchemists introduced it in the ninth century. Alchemists learned that by doing certain things to natural substances— such as mixing them, heating them, or distilling them—they could bring about changes in matter. The need to repeat such experiments in exactly the same way led to the development of the scientific method. For the first time Arab scientists began to keep detailed scientific records of the physical properties of such things as alum, sulfur, lime, glass, and metals. Scientists such as Jabir ibn Hayyan (circa 725 - circa 815), known in the West by the Latinized name Geber, and al-Razi (865-925), known in the west as Rhazes, wrote books on chemistry that were widely used by European scholars. These books described what happened when minerals were exposed to heat, air, or other chemical substances. Many of their discoveries had practical applications in areas as diverse as cosmetics (making perfumes by distilling the oils of flowers), pharmacy, ceramics, glass, glazes, textiles, and mining.
Equipment and Operations . Muslim alchemists developed equipment that enabled them to conduct controlled experiments. Some of their inventions, or improvements on earlier equipment, are still in use today, including the crucible, the alembic, and the retort. Their most significant invention was the furnace, which was described in many manuscripts. The anthanor, a special kind of furnace, has segments that represent certain parts of the human body. They made tremendous advancements in chemical operations such as distillation, filtration, calcination, crystallization, and the preparation of chemical compounds. Many of these compounds were used as medicine. For example, to make a medicinal herbal distillation, the alchemist boiled herbs and a small amount of liquid, collected the rising steam in a glass vessel, and sealed it. When the steam returned to a liquid state, the final product was a potent medication.
Metallurgy . Much of modern historians’ knowledge about Muslim metallurgy comes from the writings of Muslim alchemists, whose careful observation and recording of process and results led to the development of methods for smelting, oxidation, liquidation, leaching, and amalgamation (combining metals). These alchemists did extensive studies on the characteristics of gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, brass, and steel. The knowledge derived from these experiments was put to use by medieval Muslim craftsmen, who created beautiful works of art, some of which are now in museums. In fact, Muslim decorative art reached one of its peaks in the medieval period with the inlaying of brass or bronze with silver, copper, and gold. Some of these finely wrought objects made by Arab craftsmen were taken to Europe by merchants and Crusaders.
Classification . Considered the founder of Islamic alchemy and the Father of Chemistry, Jabir ibn Hayyan began the long and tedious project of classifying the substances of the natural world. He divided them into three classes based on their main characteristics. He called the first group “The Spirits,” because they could be vaporized with fire. His second group was “Metallic Bodies,” lustrous or shiny substances that could be hammered into shape and could make a sound. The third group he called “The Bodies,” mineral substances that could not be hammered, but are easy to pulverize, or break into fine powder. He also wrote about the “inner spirit” of substances and the important balance between their inner physical qualities.
Elements and Processes . The physician al-Razi linked alchemy, pure science (which led to the modern concept of chemistry), and medicine. His books, particularly Kitab sirr al-asrar (The Book of the Secret of Secrets), were studied by later generations of Muslims and Europeans. Al-Razi expanded earlier works that divided metals into seven categories, making progress in the field of geology possible. His well-known classification of all substances as either mineral, vegetable, or animal laid the foundation for the modern classification system used today. Some historians claim that al-Razi was the first scientist to chemically separate and make use of al-kohl (alcohol), which could be used as a disinfectant. That advance enabled physicians to perform surgery with a reduced risk of postoperative infection. The tenth-century alchemist Ibn Umayl wrote several influential works, including his Kitab al-ma al-waraqi wal-ard al-najmiyyah (Book of the Silvery Water and Starry Earth), which was translated into Latin as the Tabula Chemica and influenced the development of chemistry in the West. The continued study of such processes as the fusion of elements, distillation, and crystallization continued over the centuries.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE
The thirst for artistic exchange among the elites of different cultures often brings about an intermingling of technology and art from several regions. One particular example of this kind of exchange is the intricately designed hand warmers Muslim artists made for the European market. The idea of a circular metal heater seems to have originated in China, where small round fire pots with hinged tops were filled with burning embers and hung from the ceiling. Using a similar design, Muslim craftsmen made spherical incense burners, piercing the round body of each burner and decorating it with silver and gold inlaid designs. After merchants exported them to Europe, they discovered that the people in the cold climates of Europe were using the incense burners as hand warmers. Seeing a market for a new item, Muslim artisans inserted a brass pan inside each burner to hold hot coals, and to keep the burning embers from spilling they added a gimbal inside of the spherical. This device enabled people to roll the round hand warmer in any direction while keeping the inner pan holding the hot coals completely level. These hand warmers were so popular that by the 1700s European artisans in Venice were copying the design and competing for the hand-warmer market. Some Muslim artisans moved to Venice, where they taught Islamic metal-working skills to the Italians. Venetian metalworkers who copied Muslim styles called themselves al-Azzimina a term derived from the Arabic word for non-Arabs. Working with Muslim craftsmen, these Venetians made “Islamic style” trays, bowls, buckets, hand warmers, vases, and elaborately designed pitchers called ewers, copies of those Muslims used for ritual cleansing before their five daily prayers.
Source : Esin Atil, W. T. Chase, and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1985).
Alchemy and Religious Beliefs . The spiritual expression of alchemy is rooted in the belief that if physical matter could be transformed from one substance to another, then the spiritual realm of humans could be altered as well. Alchemists thought that, if they could bring about perfection in the physical world (by attempting to turn base lead into gold, for example), then they could also bring about spiritual rebirth—by turning the crudest element of the individual human soul into something that could connect with the Divine. This symbolic and spiritual side of Muslim alchemy appealed to European Christians because of the doctrine of the death and resurrection of Christ. Alchemy was closely allied to astrology, with each field serving as a complement to the other. Astrology focused on the heavens while alchemy explored how one can move from the lower, or earthly, realm to the higher, heavenly
realm. Alchemy deals with the four qualities identified by ancient philosophers (cold, humid, hot, and dry) and the seven metals commonly used in antiquity. These seven metals in the earthly realm were linked to, and symbolized, the sun, moon, and planets in the heavenly realm:
Saturn: lead
Venus: copper
Jupiter: tin
Mercury: quicksilver
Mars: iron
Moon: silver
Sun: gold
Alchemists considered nature to be the Divine Breath on earth.
Achievements . Working within a unifying religious framework, Muslim alchemists made advances in medicine, geology, philosophy, chemistry, biology, and botany. Many Arabic alchemical texts were among the works translated into Latin in the twelfth century. Because of their close proximity to the rest of western Europe, alchemists working in Andalusia (Muslim Spain) had a more immediate effect on the West than those in the Middle East. Perhaps the most interesting of twelfth-century Spanish alchemists was al-Jayyani, who combined alchemy and the art of poetry in his Shu-dur al-dhahab (Particles of Gold). A fifteenth-century Spanish scientist, al-Marrakushi, described chemical processes in the form of a dream. Many of these manuscripts were difficult to translate because Muslim alchemists often used language that was deliberately confusing, particularly if they were writing about something bordering on the occult. They did not want anyone except other alchemists to decipher their seemingly strange experiments. It was particularly difficult for “outsiders” to make sense of the writings of Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the English word gibberish is derived from his name. Among the Europeans influenced by Arabic alchemical writings were the well-known French alchemist and student of the occult Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418), the philosopher-scientists Roger Bacon (circa 1214/1220 - circa 1292), Albertus Magnus (circa 1200-1280), Frances Bacon (1561-1626), and Isaac Newton (1642-1727).
Sources
Esin Atil, W. T. Chase, and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1985).
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study (London: World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976).
Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968).
Rachel Ward, Islamic Metalwork (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1993).
W. Montgomery Watt, The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe. Islamic Surveys 9 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1972).