PEOPLE
AIC gold medal goes to Kuhn Cited for role in raising professional standards and promoting research When Wayne E. Kuhn set out from his native Portland, Ore., in his brassfronted Model T Ford in 1925, he little dreamed that the road would lead him to heights of success and to a position of considerable prestige among his professional peers. That it did so was evident again last week when Dr. Kuhn received the coveted American Institute of Chemists' Gold Medal at the 44th annual AIC meeting in Chicago. The award citation notes Dr. Kuhn's long and devoted service in the advancement of professional standards, his enterprise in promoting research, and his active participation in professional organizations. Dr. Kuhn, now 63, retired as general manager of Texaco's research and technical department in 1965. He attributes his success largely to his adherence to several rigid principles he set early in his career. "For me, professional and scientific integrity have been the guiding forces of my life," he says. He also advocates that a person should play an active role in societies and organizations serving his profession. A chance occurrence ("My car finally broke down, and I was short of cash") set him down at the doors of Cornell University. He already had a B.A. in chemistry from Portland's Reed College. So he went to work on his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering under Dr. Fred H. Rhodes. He joined Texaco's Bayonne, N.J., labs in 1929. Shortly afterward, Texaco moved him to its Port Arthur, Tex., refinery. "I intended many times to return to Portland," Dr. Kuhn recalls. "But every time I was on the verge of doing so, something cropped up to keep me with the company." In 1937, Texaco sent him to New York City headquarters and set him up as manager of its research and technical division. While at Port Arthur, Dr. Kuhn began compiling basic physical and thermodynamic data on hydrocarbons for company use and continued the task in New York. The oil industry as a whole soon saw the value of such data and the study grew into American Petroleum Institute Project 44 under the chairmanship of Dr. Kuhn and the direction of Dr. Frederick D. 60 C&EN MAY 29, 1967
Rossini (now dean of the college of science at Notre Dame). Dr. Kuhn, generally touted as "the father of the critical table studies on hydrocarbons," served as chairman of API Project 44 for the first 10 years of its existence. His prominence in this field also put him on the advisory board of the ACS critical tables committee for a six-year term. But Dr. Kuhn, who has been blessed with a vigorous constitution, was never content to sit back and direct work from an office. His natural curiosity and lively interest in what was going on at the bench resulted in his racking up many miles of travel each year. Of his many field trips, his calls on General Motors, where he visited Charles F. Kettering and Harry Mougey regularly, stand out in his memory most prominently. "I was privileged to be one of a very few 'outsiders' who got to see Kettering in his lab," he recalls. Largely as a result of his discussions with GM, Dr. Kuhn spearheaded a research project on lube oil additives. Through a cooperative effort with Lubrizol, and drawing on GM's findings, Texaco provided the military with the first allpurpose heavy-duty motor oil just prior to World War II. Texaco's current petrochemical activity is the brainchild of Dr. Kuhn. "For many years I was intrigued with the idea of using oil as a source of chemicals," he observes. He can claim a major share of the credit for bringing together Texaco's oil refining capabilities and American Cyanamid's marketing acumen to form Jefferson Chemical Co. in 1947. As one of the original directors of the company, he visited and evaluated potential sites for the proposed plant, finally helping to select Port Neches, Tex., where the first units went up. He also planned Jefferson Chemicars research and tech service labs. "This is one activity of my career that affords me deep satisfaction," he says. Casting his eyes further afield, Dr. Kuhn foresaw Europe emerging as an important area for Texaco to grow in as the standard of living and research there began to pick up again in the 1950's. He sent John Hutcheson to London in 1958 as Texaco's first
Dr. Wayne E. Kuhn Guiding forces: professional and scientific integrity
European technical representative. The company's tech service laboratory at Ghent, Belgium, is a direct outgrowth of Dr. Kuhn's planning. True to his principles, Dr. Kuhn has been actively associated with many professional groups. He is a past president of AIC and of the Commercial Chemical Development Association, was one of the first directors of the American Rocket Society's New York section. He served as chairman of API's fundamental research division and was a member of the board of directors of the Coordinating Research Council, a group formed jointly by API and the Society of Automotive Engineers. He has also served on the Defense Science Board. He was presented with a Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Service to the U.S. Navy during World War II, in recognition of his technical advisory work to the Bureau of Ships. He also received several other awards for service to the Government. Dr. Kuhn has finally made it back to his beloved Portland, where, on a clear day he can see five tall snowcapped mountain peaks from the living room of his magnificent hill-site home. But he doesn't let life pass him by. He travels east four or five times each year to attend advisory council meetings of the Manpower and Economics Study Group of the National Science Foundation and the Advisory Council on Federal Reports that advises the Bureau of the Budget. He is prominent, too, in local affairs. As chairman of the Portland Chamber of Commerce's committee on graduate study, he has done much toward pro-
moting the organization of a graduate school at Portland State College, soon to change its name to Portland University. He is also an adviser to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. He is on the boards of several local industries. Dr. Kuhn is a lapidarian, an exmountain climber, and a philatelist. He has a complete lapidary workshop in his basement. He married Agnes L. Lakie in 1929, and they have a son, William.
Harris wins Schoellk< f Award "A unique combination of administrator and scientist" is the 1967 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal winner, Dr. Gordon McLeod Harris of State University of New York at Buffalo. Thus is Dr. Harris described in the award citation, which along with a gold medal was presented to him by Jacob F. Schoellkopf, V, at the May 16
INDUSTRY
Celanese officers Francis W. Theis
Theis
has been named president of Celanese Chemical Co., New York City. He has been president of Celanese Coatings Co., Louisville, and is succeeded in that
Dragone
Busch
post by Allan R. Dragone, who has been executive v.p. H. Kenneth Busch, who has been president of Celanese Chemical, has been named executive director of manufacturing and engineering, a new corporate position at Celanese Corp. Dr. Fred B. Block named administrative assistant to the director of medicinal chemistry at Geigy Chemical Corp. Dr. E. Charles Pesterfield named administrative assistant to the director of organic chemistry. Dr. John E. Francis and Dr. Winfried Arnold appointed research associates in the department of organic chemistry. New project leaders in that department: Dr. Heinz A. Pfenninger, Dr. Norbert Gruenfeld, Dr. Naokata Yokoyama, and Dr. Michael Smith. D. B. Campbell, Jr., becomes manager of Eastman Chemical International, A.G., Zug, Switzerland. W. P. Buss art succeeds him as assistant general manager of the international division of Tennessee Eastman.
award dinner of the ACS Western New York Section in Buffalo. Dr. Harris received the award "in recognition of his outstanding leadership in the development of the department of chemistry of the State University at Buffalo to its present level of excellence." The award winner was born in 1913 in Chungking, China, of Canadian missionary parents and was brought up principally in Moose Jaw, Sask. He earned his B.S. in chemistry at University of Saskatchewan in 1939 and his A.M. (1942) and Ph.D. (1943) at Harvard University. During World War II he was an operations research officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force and a chemist with the National Research Council in Ottawa, Ont. Since 1945 he has been in academic life—first as an assistant professor at his Saskatchewan alma mater, then as a senior lecturer in physical chemistry at University of Melbourne, Australia. In 1953, after a year's leave as a research associate at University of Wisconsin, Dr. Harris joined the University of Buffalo (now a unit of the State University of New York) as assistant professor of chemistry. He was promoted to professor of chemistry in 1955. Since 1956 he has been chairman of the chemistry department, and since 1961 he has been Larkin Professor of Chemistry. When Dr. Harris became chairman, the department had 10 faculty members, 15 to 20 graduate students, and it graduated 25 bachelor students per year. Aided by a new chemistry building in 1959 and by the merger of
University of Buffalo with State University of New York in 1962, he recruited many new faculty members and graduate students, obtained much new equipment, and set up supporting shops. Dr. Harris accepts responsibility for the department's personality, since only five of the present faculty of 30 members were on the staff in 1956. The university, recognizing his proficiency as an administrator, appointed him chairman of the Division of Sciences and Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1965. This position, expanded to that of provost of the newly created faculty of natural sciences and mathematics, is being relinquished by Dr. Harris this summer to enable him to give his full attention to department chairmanship and be more active in research and teaching. Dr. Harris' ability to draw and keep new faculty and students is aided by his role as an active research chemist. He has authored or coauthored about 50 publications, including "Chemical Kinetics," a book published last year (Heath). His research is in chemical kinetics and in the use of radioisotopes in the study of reaction mechanisms in inorganic chemistry. Dr. Harris considers it essential for a department chairman to be actively engaged in chemistry. He says it helps him in his recruitment—he knows better who and where the good people are—and it helps him judge better what to do both in instruction and in research. Referring to his faculty, Dr. Harris says that some kind of scholarship, be it research in laboratory or library, is necessary for a man to be a good teacher. He also expects each faculty member to teach undergraduates, as they should have contact with active chemists, old and young. Looking to the future, Dr. Harris is planning the expansion of the department which will take place as a result of the construction of the university's new Amherst, N.Y., campus between 1968 and 1974. By 1974 he hopes to have 60 faculty members, which will enable the department to train 250 graduate students and graduate 50 B.S. students per year. Dr. Harris and his department are now having "group-thinks" on the revision of the curriculum at State University. He is concerned that, whatever the popular conception of chemical research, chemistry is getting an unfavorable image in the minds of many young people as a boring subject to learn. Undergraduate curriculums must be modernized to make them more in keeping with the way chemistry really is, Dr. Harris says. MAY 29, 1967 C&EN
61
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