Ira Remsen
Ira Remsen | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York, U.S. | February 10, 1846
Died | March 4, 1927 Carmel, California, U.S. | (aged 81)
Nationality | United States |
Alma mater | College of Physicians and Surgeons University of Göttingen |
Known for | Discovery of saccharin Founder, American Chemical Journal |
Awards | Priestley Medal (1923) Willard Gibbs Award (1914) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Institutions | University of Tübingen Williams College Johns Hopkins University |
Doctoral advisor | Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig |
Doctoral students | William Henry Emerson Charles Herty William A. Noyes Kotaro Shimomura |
Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was a chemist who, along with Constantin Fahlberg, discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.
Biography
Ira Remsen was born in New York City and earned an M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1867. Remsen subsequently studied chemistry in Germany, studying under chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig, receiving a PhD from University of Göttingen in 1870.[1] In 1872, after researching pure chemistry at University of Tübingen, Remsen returned to the United States and became a professor at Williams College, where he wrote the popular text Theoretical Chemistry. Remsen's book and reputation brought him to the attention of Daniel Coit Gilman, who invited him to become one of the original faculty of Johns Hopkins University. Remsen accepted and founded the department of chemistry there, overseeing his own laboratory. In 1879 Remsen founded the American Chemical Journal, which he edited for 35 years.
In 1879 Fahlberg, working with Remsen in a post-doctoral capacity, made an accidental discovery that changed Remsen's career. Eating rolls at dinner after a long day in the lab researching coal tar derivatives, Fahlberg noticed that the rolls tasted initially sweet but then bitter.[2] Since his wife tasted nothing strange about the rolls, Fahlberg tasted his fingers and noticed that the bitter taste was probably from one of the chemicals in his lab. The next day at his lab he tasted the chemicals that he had been working with the previous day and discovered that it was the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide he had tasted the previous evening. He named the substance saccharin and he and his research partner Remsen published their finding in 1880. Later Remsen became angry after Fahlberg, in patenting saccharin, claimed that he alone had discovered saccharin.[3] Remsen had no interest in the commercial success of saccharin, from which Fahlberg profited, but he was incensed at the perceived dishonesty of not crediting him as the head of the laboratory.[2]
Throughout his academic career, Remsen was known as an excellent teacher, rigorous in his expectations but patient with the beginner. "His lectures to beginners were models of didactic exposition, and many of his graduate students owe much of their later success in their own lecture rooms to the pedagogical training received from attendance upon Remsen's lectures to freshmen."[4]
In 1901 Remsen was appointed the president of Johns Hopkins, where he proceeded to found a School of Engineering and helped establish the school as a research university. He introduced many of the German laboratory techniques he had learned and wrote several important chemistry textbooks. In 1912 he stepped down as president, due to ill health, and retired to Carmel, California.
In 1923 he was awarded the Priestley medal.[5][6] He died on March 4, 1927.
Legacy
After his death, the new chemistry building, completed in 1924, was named after him at Johns Hopkins. His ashes are located behind a plaque in Remsen Hall; he is the only person buried on campus.[7]
His Baltimore house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.[8]
Remsen Hall in Queens College is also named for him.[citation needed]
Remsen Award
In 1946, to commemorate the centenary of Remsen, the Maryland chapter of the American Chemical Society, began awarding the Remsen award, in his honor.[9][10][11][12] Awardees are frequently of the highest caliber, and included a sequence of 16 Nobel laureates between 1950 and 1980.
- Recipients
- 1946: Roger Adams[10][11][13][14]
- 1947: Samuel C. Lind[15]
- 1948: Elmer V. McCollum[16]
- 1949: Joel H. Hildebrand[17]
- 1950: Edward C. Kendall[18]
- 1951: Hugh Stott Taylor
- 1952: W. Mansfield Clark[19][20]
- 1953: Edward L. Tatum[21]
- 1954: Vincent du Vigneaud[22]
- 1955: Willard F. Libby[23]
- 1956: Farrington Daniels[24]
- 1957: Melvin Calvin[25]
- 1958: Robert B. Woodward
- 1959: Edward Teller
- 1960: Henry Eyring (chemist)[26]
- 1961: Herbert C. Brown
- 1962: George Porter
- 1963: Harold C. Urey[27]
- 1964: Paul Doughty Bartlett
- 1965: James R. Arnold[28]
- 1966: Paul H. Emmett
- 1967: Marshall W. Nirenberg
- 1968: Har Gobind Khorana
- 1969: Albert L. Lehninger
- 1970: George S. Hammond
- 1971: George C. Pimentel
- 1972: Charles H. Townes
- 1973: Frank H. Westheimer
- 1974: Elias J. Corey[29]
- 1975: Henry Taube
- 1976: William N. Lipscomb, Jr.[30]
- 1977: Ronald Breslow
- 1978: John Charles Polanyi[31]
- 1979: Harry B. Gray
- 1980: Roald Hoffman
- 1981: Koji Nakanishi[32]
- 1982: Harden McConnell
- 1983: George M. Whitesides
- 1984: Earl L. Muetterties
- 1985: Richard N. Zare[33]
- 1986: Gilbert Stork
- 1987: Stephen J. Lippard
- 1988: Mildred Cohn
- 1989: K. Barry Sharpless[34]
- 1990: Robert G. Bergman
- 1991: Rudolph A. Marcus[35]
- 1992: William Klemperer
- 1993: Christopher T. Walsh
- 1994: Edward I. Solomon
- 1995: Alfred G. Redfield
- 1996: David A. Evans
- 1997: William Hughes Miller
- 1998: Peter Dervan[36]
- 1999: Thomas J. Meyer
- 2000: Alexander Pines
- 2001: Ad Bax[37]
- 2002: Matthew S. Platz
- 2003: Henry F. Schaefer III
- 2004: Samuel Danishefsky
- 2005: Judith P. Klinman
- 2006: Gabor A. Somorjai[38]
- 2007: Peter F. Leadlay[39]
- 2008: John C. Tully
- 2009: Jean Frechet
- 2010: John T. Groves[40]
- 2011: Graham R. Fleming[41]
- 2012: Daniel G. Nocera[42]
- 2013: Eric Jacobsen[43]
- 2014: Emily A. Carter[44]
- 2015: JoAnne Stubbe[45]
- 2016: Charles M. Lieber[46]
- 2017: Robert H. Grubbs[47]
- 2018: Chad Mirkin[48]
References
- ^ http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/remsen-ira.pdf
- ^ a b HIcks, Jesse (2010). "The Pursuit of Sweet". Chemical Heritage Magazine. 28 (1). Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ "The Johns Hopkins Gazette: September 11, 2000".
- ^ Getman, Frederick H. (August 1939). "Ira Remsen: Erstwhile Dean of Baltimore Chemists". Journal of Chemical Education. 16 (8): 353. Bibcode:1939JChEd..16..353G. doi:10.1021/ed016p353.
- ^ "Chemistry Award For Dr. Ira Remsen. Priestley Medal Will Be Bestowed Upon Him at Chemical Society's Annual Meeting". New York Times. September 3, 1923. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
The Priestley medal awarded every three years by the American Chemical Society for distinguished services to chemistry, will be bestowed upon Dr. Ira Remsen, President Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, at ceremonies in Milwaukee, Wis., on Sept. 12, in connection with the annual meeting of the society, it was announced here last night.
- ^ "Chemical & Engineering News: The Priestly Medal - 1923: Ira Remsen (1846–1927)".
- ^ https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/plaque-celebrating-chemist-and-second-president-of-johns-news-photo/528194388.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ Burgison, Raymond M. (1 May 1957). "The Remsen Memorial Lecture 1946–1957" (PDF). Chesapeake Chemist. 13 (5): 9–10. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
It was the intention of the Maryland Section that Remsen Memorial Lecturers should be chemists of outstanding ability, as exemplified by Ira Remsen's long and devoted career as an exponent of the highest standard in teaching and reserach [sic] in chemistry. That the intentions of the Section have been fulfilled is attested by the great honor and esteem that have become associated with the receipt of the Remsen Lectureship.
- ^ a b "American Chemical Society Awards: Priestley Medal". Nature. 158 (4011): 371–372. 1946. Bibcode:1946Natur.158S.371.. doi:10.1038/158371c0. ISSN 0028-0836.
- ^ a b Hartford, Winslow H. (1946). "Ira Remsen and Roger Adams--A Chemical Centennial". The Scientific Monthly. 63 (4): 261–267. Bibcode:1946SciMo..63..261H. JSTOR 18751.
The year 1946 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Ira Remsen, first professor of chemistry and second president of The Johns Hopkins University. The chemists of Maryland, through the Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society, have appropriately chosen this year to initiate a series of lectures in his honor, and Professor Roger Adams of the University of Illinois was selected as the first Remsen Lecturer.
- ^ National Academy of Sciences (U.S.); National Research Council (U.S.) (1955). Scientific and Technical Societies of the United States and Canada. Publication (National Research Council (U.S.))) (6th ed.). National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. p. 43. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ "Roger Adams Delivers First Remsen Memorial Lecture at Johns Hopkins". Chemical & Engineering News. 24 (12): 1642. 25 June 1946. doi:10.1021/cen-v024n012.p1642. ISSN 0009-2347.
- ^ "Prof. Adams to Give Lecture". NYTimes.com. 12 May 1946. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ LIND, S. C. (1947). "Fifty Years of Atomic Research". Chemical & Engineering News. 25 (35): 2495–2499. doi:10.1021/cen-v025n035.p2495. ISSN 0009-2347.
- ^ "McCollum Delivers Remsen Memorial Lecture". Chemical & Engineering News. 26 (25): 1833–1834. 21 June 1948. doi:10.1021/cen-v026n025.p1833. ISSN 0009-2347.
- ^ "Joel H. Hildebrand to Deliver Remsen Memorial Lecture". Chemical & Engineering News. 27 (20): 1429. 16 May 1949. doi:10.1021/cen-v027n020.p1429. ISSN 0009-2347.
- ^ Ingle, Dwight J. (1 September 1910). Read "Biographical Memoirs: V.47" at NAP.edu. doi:10.17226/570. ISBN 978-0-309-02245-3. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ "News and Notes". Science. 115 (2997): 617–620. 6 June 1952. Bibcode:1952Sci...115..617.. doi:10.1126/science.115.2997.617. ISSN 0036-8075.
- ^ "NEWS-MAKERS". Chemical & Engineering News. 30 (13): 1314–1318. 31 March 1952. doi:10.1021/cen-v030n013.p1314. ISSN 0009-2347.
- ^ Erg, Joshua Lederb (14 December 1909). Read "Biographical Memoirs: V.59" at NAP.edu. doi:10.17226/1652. ISBN 978-0-309-04198-0. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ Hofmann, Klaus (12 June 1924). Read "Biographical Memoirs: V.56" at NAP.edu. doi:10.17226/897. ISBN 978-0-309-03693-1. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ "Finding Aid for the Willard F. Libby Papers". Online Archive of California. 17 December 1908. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ Alberty, Robert A. (23 June 1972). Read "Biographical Memoirs: V.65" at NAP.edu. doi:10.17226/4548. ISBN 978-0-309-05037-1. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ Calvin, Melvin (1 May 1957). "The Twelfth Remsen Lecture" (PDF). Chesapeake Chemist. 13 (5): 5–6. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
- ^ "Archives West: Henry Eyring papers, 1915-2010". Archives West. 22 February 1999. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Urey (Harold Clayton) Papers". Online Archive of California. 14 February 1935. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Dr. James Arnold selected to give Ira Remsen M..." UC San Diego Library | Digital Collections. 29 May 1965. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Awards: Elias James Corey". Harvard Computer Society. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1976". NobelPrize.org. 11 December 1976. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Polanyi, J. C., 1929-". Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "People: Columbia Professor To Receive ACS Organic Chemistry Award". The Scientist Magazine®. 5 February 1990. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "About Richard N. Zare". Stanford University. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "F. A. Cotton Medal: K. B. Sharpless / Remsen Award: E. A. Carter / Janssen Pharmaceutica Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis: J. F. Hartwig". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53 (25): 6306. 12 June 2014. doi:10.1002/anie.201405110. ISSN 1433-7851.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1992". NobelPrize.org. 8 December 1992. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Professor Dervan". Dervan Group Homepage. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Ad Bax Group / NIH". NMR Groups in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Gábor A. Somorjai". Chem-Station Int. Ed. 25 December 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Leadlay, Prof. Peter Francis, (born 13 Dec. 1949), Herchel Smith Professor of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, since 2006; Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, since 1979; Co-Founder and Director, BIOTICA Technology Ltd, 1996–2013", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u24043
- ^ "John Groves Takes Remsen Award". Chemical & Engineering News. 88 (16). 19 April 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ "Fleming Wins 2011 Remsen Award". Today at Berkeley Lab. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ "MARM 2012 – Remsen Award and Symposium". MARM – Middle Atlantic Regional Meetings of the ACS. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ "2013 Remson Award". Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ "Talks and Awards – The Carter Group". carter.princeton.edu. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ Wang, Linda (4 May 2015). "2015 Remsen Award To JoAnne Stubbe". Chemical & Engineering News. 93 (18): 34. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2015.06.095. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ "Dr. Charles M. Lieber Delivers 71st Remsen Award Lecture". Johns Hopkins University – Department of Chemistry. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ Wang, Linda (13 February 2017). "Robert Grubbs wins Remsen Award". Chemical & Engineering News. 95 (7): 37. doi:10.1016/j.ces.2016.09.026. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ "What can ACS local sections do for you?". Chesapeake Chemist. 75 (2): 5. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
Further reading
- Noyes W. A. (1927). "Ira Remsen". Science. 66 (1707): 243–246. Bibcode:1927Sci....66..243N. doi:10.1126/science.66.1707.243. PMID 17742012.