Chemical Education in American Institutions
IKTEREST in scientific work in the South, especially in chemistry as applied to agriculture, dates back t o ~ t h e founding of the oldest state.universities in this area a t the beeinnine of the nineteenth centurv: " , and this appreciation of the value of our science has continued through the years. Normally this would have led to a rapid scientific development in these institutions a t an early period, hut unfortunately this natural progress was either interrupted or greatly retarded by the rigors of the Civil War and Reconstruction days. It was not resumed to any considerable extent for many years, and as a result the departments of chemistry in southern institutions have made substantial progress only since the close of the last century, although they havealonger history than many of their counterparts in other seetions of the country. The history of the development of Duke University and its department of chemistry is typical of this situation and it may be of interest to recount it briefly.
LUCIUS A. BIGELOW, WARREN C. VOSBURGH, and JOHN H. SAYLOR
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Duke
Durham, North
It was in 1838 that a group of serious-minded Methodists and Quakers came together in Randolph County, North Carolina, and founded Union Institute, the original forebear of Duke University. In 1851 it was Normal College, primarily for the training of teachers, and in 1858 it associated with the Methodist Church and became Trinity College. This school showed marked strength, survived the Civil War, and, after many hardships, was moved in 1892 to Durham, largely through the interest and generosity of the Duke family, whose continuing benefactions made it even in that time the most heavily endowed college in the South Atlantic States.
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It was just prior to this move that chemistry had become sufficientlyimportant a t Trinity to warrant a full professorship and just subsequent to it that the Crowell Science Hall was erected on the campus at Durham to house the scientific work of the college. Another notable achievement was the uncompromising adherence of the college to the principles of academic freedom in the face of stress, and this valuable heritage has not been lost with the passing years. The advent of the first World War brought rapid advances. The Graduate School was first envisaged in 1916; the Summer School, already pioneered by the Department of Chemistly, was formally opened in 1920; and shortly thereafter the forerunner of the presenB Research Council was set up with the ultimate purpose of supplying grants-in-aid to members of the faculty; Later a cooperative arrangement between the Chemistry Department and the tobacco industry further symbolized the services of the college to the community. Much of this activity drew inspiration from Dr. P a d M. Gross, who was appointed Chairman of the Department in 1922 and is now, in addition, the Dean of the Graduate School. Such was the situation in 1924, when the college became the principal beneficiary of the munificent Duke Endowment, a t which time its name was changed to Duke University. Quite appropriately the endowment indenture specifically names chemistry among the important fields of knowledge to be fostered by the university. Shortly after the establishment of the endowment the Graduate School was formally launched and a great building program was begun. At first the sciences were housed in a modern building erected on the original campus, soon to become the Woman's College campus, and a few years later, in 1931, the Department of Chemistry moved into its own building and took its place among the other departments and schools of the university on the new men's campus, as illustrated in the accompanying photographs. In 1938, our centennial year, Duke University was admitted to the kssociationofAmericanUniversities, largely as a result of the varied scholarly activities of the faculty and students of the Graduate School. This important recognition came only one short decade following the granting of the first Doctorate degree by the University in 1928. Today the Graduate School has close to three hundred students, of whom more than forty are in the
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Department of Chemistly and the total number of students in the Greater University has risen to over fortyseven hundred, including a thousand women. This brief historical sketch represents the background and development against which the present activities of the Department of Chemistry must be viewed and evaluated. BUILDING
The chemistry building at Duke, whose present replacement value would well exceed a million dollars, has a Gothic type of architecture which harmonizes well with the other buildings on the campus. It is almost completely fireproof, and has a floor area of 57,000 square feet, of which 9500 square feet is available for research purposes. The building contains a lecture room with good acoustics and a seating capacity of 280, an excellent library, five class rooms, twenby-five research rooms of various sizes, together with an ample number of laboratories, offices, stock rooms, and other usual facilities. It is provided with a particularly efficientventilating system, good lighting, all necessary services throughout, including Duriron drains, and a well-equipped shop, as well as the usual and specialized apparatus required for the varied activities of the department. Although the building construction is of an expensive type, especially in such matters as the ventilating and drainage systems, the wisdom of this additional origjnal investment has been amply demonstrated by the relatively low maintenance and upkeep costs over the ensuing seventeen years. Now in use to its fullest capacity, this building has proved not only serviceable and adaptable but also a really pleasant place in which to work.
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fledged professional chemists. To meet the needs of such students there is , . , offered an A. B. degree with a major in chemistry, which although providing sound training in the fundamental courses does not require as high a degree of specialization as is expected of the first group, and may include, for example, a, course in physical chemistry for which calculus is not a prerequisite. About twice as many students per year will complete the requirements in this group, including a number who are preparing for medical school, and a substantial proportion of women interested in sound chemical training. V ~ e win the Departmental Shop The third group is by far the largest in the departUNDERGRADUATE INSTRUCTION merit and comprises the greater part of the 500 students who enter the freshman chemistry course each year. The basic aim of the department on the undergradu- Of these more than one-fifth are women who receive ate level is to provide four fundamental and compre- instruction, while freshmen, in the science building on hensive courses in general, analytical, organic, and the Woman's College campus. Of the men, nearly onephysical chemistry, with little opportunity for speciali- half are premedical students, nearly a third are engization a t this stage, in order that the student may have neers who go no further, and perhaps asixth are prosample time for supporting courses in physics and pective majors and students who will specialize later on mathematics, as well as work in the humanities and in related scienccs such as physics, mathematics, other fields designed to broaden his training. zoology, botany, or forestry. The premedical students In general the undergraduate students who take must take one semester of analytical chemistry and a chemistry at Duke may be divided into three main year of organic chemistry in order to complete the miniclasses: 1,candidates for the B.S. degree who are train- mum requirements for admission to medical school. ing to be chemists; 2, candidates for the A.B. degree These students are required to meet high standards with a major in chemistry; and 3, premedical student,^, throughout as a suitable preparation for the rigorous engineers, students in related sciences, and others seek- work which will be required of them later. ing to fulfill their science requirement. The first group While many of the elementary courses are taught must naturally take the four fundamental courses and, in addition, one semester each of advanced quantitative analysis, qualitative organic analysis, and physicochemical methods of analysis. Outside of the department they must take at least a year of physics, French, and German through the second college year, and a year each of English, social science or history, and religion. About a dozen students complete this exacting course in a given year, and it is the purpose of this program to see to it that they receive the most thorough undergraduate training in chemistry which the department affords, which also meets all the essential requirements as laid down by the American Chemical Society for the training of chemists. With regard to the second group, the department fullv recomizes the im~ortanceof chemistrv to many students who do not necessarily intend to become fullviewin the ~ ~ ~A ~ ~ ~t , .~I ~~S ~~ ~ b ~
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hours of graduate work, of which six semester hours must be taken as a minor in another department, usually physics but occasionally biochemistry, and six hours is allowed for a thesis. Most students do not stop at the Master's degree, and quite a number go on without taking it, although it is considered that writing a Master's thesis and taking an oral examination upon i t constitutes good training for subsequent Doctorate work. The requirements for the Doctorate in Chemistry may be considered as divided into two parts, first, graduate courses and other preparation leading to the pr@minary examinations, and second, productive research suitable for ultimate publication. As on the undergraduate level, the emphasis in course work is largely upon fundamentals and narrow specialization is not permitted. All students are required to take courses in thermodynamics, advanced organic, and advanced inorganic chemistry, and unless undergraduate preparation in analytical chemistry has been unusually thorough, advanced work in this field is included. Additional courses are chosen in accordance with the student's aptitudes, interest, and field of research, including a minor which is usually in physics but occasionally in biochemistry, the latter department being a unit in the medical school. There is no stated requirement for the minor, the rule being that the department in which it is taken must be satisfied. The exact program
along well-recognized lines, some of them may merit special comment. All students who go beyond one year of chemistry are required to take a course, "Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry," replacing the usual course in qualitative analysis, part of the latter being covered in the second semester of the freshman year. This course includes material usually dealt with in both qualitative and quantitative analytical courses. The laboratory work begins with a few of the simpler methods of quantitative analysis (gravimetric, volumetric, and colorimetric) and some qualitative experiments on rractions of electrolytes. These are followed by quantitative experiments dealing with equilibrium, pH, and solubility product, which have been found especially helpful in teaching the theory. A little semimicro qualitative analysis covering the hydrogen sulfide and ammonium sulfide groups is also included. The course in organic chemistry is taken by all of the upperclass students in the department. In this course, which must in the nature of things deal with a large mass of descriptive and statistical material, it is made clear to the student that he must not only learn about but also think about his subject. This emphasis upon the value of understanding as opposed to memory alone runs through all courses in the department and it is regarded as of fundamental importance. Finally, it may be pointed out that the work in physical chemistry is organized along somewhat. different lines than is conimonlv the case. This organization is based on the concept'that the student should receive two different types of training, the first in basic principles very simply illustrated, and the second in physicochemical instrumentation. These objectives are achieved through two courses, the first a basic course designed to present and develop the fundamentals of the subject aa clearly as possible from the standpoint of both theory and simple experiment. The second objective is achieved through courses in instrumental and physicochemical methods of analysis where familiarity with many modern instruments is attained. These include, for example, the spectrophotometer and other optical instruments, the potentiometer, the polarograph, the platinum resistance thermometer and apparatus for measuring conductivities and dielectric constants. GRADUATE INSTRUCTION
The chief purposes of the department on the graduate level are to train students t o become independent leaders in their respective fields, either in educational or research institutions or in industry, as well as to foster and encourage the scholarly output of the members of the faculty. At the present time there are more than forty graduate students at work in the department, which over the past twenty years has sent out mare than fifteen per cent of the Doctors of Philosophy coming from the Graduate School, and the highest proportion coming from any sing1e in the The requirement for the Master's degree is thirty semester
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of courses is ultimately determined by the faculty committee which is in charge of the individual candidate. Preliminary examinations, both written and oral, covering the four branches of chemistry and the minor, are given near the beginning of the second or third year of the candidate's residence, at which time thorough preparation and much promise must be demonstrated. The student's program of research is usually initiated as soon as he is able to select a director and a problem. Though progress may be slow while course work is his chief concern, it is felt that the research point of view gives him more appreciation of the value of the courses and encourages him to make the most of them. After the preliminary examinations have been passed the student devotes nearly all of his time to his research problem until in the opinion of the director the results are adequate and complete. Finally, the student must defend his tilesis successfully before his committee, in accordance with the usual custom. All members of the staff of instructor's rank or higher are encouraged to carry on and to direct research, and practically a11 of them are actively engaged in this work. While space does not permit a complete discussion of all thew research activities, a brief description of some of the projects for which this department is better known may be desirable. Following the interest in the chemistry of fluorine stemming fr m the first World War, a program of fundamental research dealing with the direct and later also the indirect fluorination of organic compounds was be-
Apparatus for the Measurement of Thermal DiHusion
gun in this department in 1928 and has continued without interruption to date. Although always operated on a modest scale, this pioneering program over an eighteen-year pe~iodhas resulted in the preparation and thorough characterization of a number of new highly fluorinated aliphatic organic compounds possessing distinctly unusual physical and chemical properties, as well as the accumulation of much information regarding the methods of preparation, quantitative analysis, and general behavior of such substances. This knowledge proved to be of considerable importance as a stepping stone to the expanded development of the chemistry of organic fluorine compounds which came during the second World War as a result of the activities of the Manhattan Project. The equipment and facilities available for this work are excellent, including a number of fluorine generators of various types, a specially ventilated room for carrying out direct fluorinations and complete equipment for the separation and characterization of organic fluorine compounds by means of both low and high temperature precision rectification. A second prominent line of research activity in the department is concerned with the problems involved in the development of new types of voltaic cells and batteries. In addition to the usual apparatus for precise electromotive force measurements over a range of temperatures, there is also available complete equipment for phase rule investigations and for studies of complex ions by means of magnetic susceptibility measurements. Two other important lines of activity in organic chemistry should be mentioned. One of these is a comprehensive study of the mechanisms of organic reactions, especially those involving the application of the electronic theory of valence to condensations and eliminations. These theoretical considerations have proved particularly successful in predicting new and unusual types of reactions which the older theories did not con~molate. The third area of interest in oreanic chemistrv is in the ~roductionof carcinogenic hvdrocarbons and their derivatives and a study of the relation of organic functional groups in molecules to their fungicidal activities. Of special interest in the field of physical chemistry are the research problems dealing with the dielectric properties of molecules and the theory of solutions. For the former, equipment of unusually high precision for the measurement of the dielectric constants of solutions and of gases is available. Among the results of this work may be mentioned the determination of the equilibrium constants of the monomer-dimer equilibrium of carboxylic acids in very dilute nonaqueous solvents, as well as the highly precise determinations of the dipole moments and dielectric constants of organic vapors. The work on the theory of solutions has included the development of new methods for determining the solubility .of slightly soluble organic compounds, such as benzene and other hydrocarbons in water and aqueous solutions, and has led to a better understanding of the salting out of organic molecules from aqueous
MAY, 1948
solution, as well as a new approach to the theoretical behavior of s u c h s o l u tions. The research in the Department of Chemistryisnot confined solely to projects such as have been outlined above where the emphasis is primarily on experimental research, but includes theoretical work along other lines. This can be well illustrated by a significant theoretical development looking toward an explanation of the striking phenomena whichoccurat extremely low temperatures, as, for example, in the case of liquid helium near absolute zero and in the behavior of superconductors a t such temperatures. This work has laid the foundations for a general theory of so-called superfluids &ch has ass m e d a leading position in present-day interpretations of these phenomena. Some measure of the vitality of the research work of any group can be obtained by looking a t the scope and extent of its published work. The department of Chemistry a t Duke University, as a graduate research group, is relatively young in comparison with similar departments in American universities, having been in effective operation for only some fifteen years. In spite of this, the publications from the Department include a list of well over three hundred papers covering a wide scope of research activity ranging from experimental work in agricultural biochemistry through the more conventional fields of inorganic, analytical, organic, and physical chemistry to the highly theoretical aspects of chemical physics. This publication record compares favorably with that of leading departments of chemistry in the cou'ntry when the limited size of our group is taken into consideration. LIBRARY
It is naturally axiomatic that good research requires a good library, and in this respect we are very fortunate. The main library of Duke University contains approximately nine hundred thousand volumes, as well as over a million manuscripts, and in terms of books is the largest library in the entire South. Even now a new wing is being constructed to house its ever-increasing collection. It operates in close collaboration with the library of the University of North Carolina, which is only some ten miles distant, and in this way about one million four hundred thousand volumes are made avail-
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Vi.w
in th. Departmental Library
able to the students and faculties of both institutions. The Chemistry Department library is part of the main library but located conveniently in the chemistry building. The long, well-lighted room, with its Gothic windows, massive tables and rows of stacks, is not only pleasant but definitely conducive to research and study. It contains nearly twelve thousand bound volumes, subscribes to two hundred and thirty-seven serials, and in terms of serial runs is one of the two largest chemistry libraries in the South. Some of the long serial runs constitute a source of considerable satisfaction, since the oldest of these goes back without interruption to 1790. It may he of interest that the subscription list for scientific serials in all the departmental libraries of the University numbers nearly two thousand five hundred. All graduate students in the department are given keys to the library. As a result it is not uncommon to find such students, in addition to faculty membep, using these facilities every day in the week and at nearly all hours. It is true that this arrangement involves the loss of a few books each year, but it is felt that the value received under this system far exceeds the cost of replacements. POLICIES AND PHILOSOPHY
It is undoubtedly true that every university department has its policies, its philosophy of education, and its less tangible yet very real individual atmosphere, and in this respect Duke presents no exception to the general rule. Some of these policies are clear and definite, such as the customs and practices of depart-
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ests and aptitudes in so far as possible. This point of view is reflectedatthegraduate level through the setting up of individual committeestoorganieeand guide each student's program, both for the Master's and Doctorate degrees. These programs are fitted, so far as possible, to the student's individual needs and take cognizance of his degree of prior training and development. Such a procedure is only possible by virtue of the fact thattheratioof instructional staff to students is a very favorable one, both on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Thus, there is a total of only some forty students doing graduate research in chemistry and their work is supervised by ten staff members who are actively concernedwithhotb Inera-red E~ectrometerend A.+ociated Equipment graduate instruction and mental operation which experience has shown are likely research. Under these circumstances, each student reto produce good results; while others are very difficult ceives a great deal of individual attention, a condition to catch and put into words, such as the ideals and at- which is greatly to be desired. This situation not only rnosphere of the department, although these exert no makes for sounder development of the students tbemsmall influence upon those who work here. For ex- selves, hut is an important factor in relation to the ample, in so far as practicable it is a matter of policy proper placement of our graduates in positions best that only fundamental courses he taught, that the staff suited to their capabilities. should not be burdened with excessive loads or overly In the last analysis, the spirit and atmosphere of a large sections, that all students should be adequately department must necessarily emanate from the personsupervised and challenged to think instead of to memo- alities of those who direct its activities, and to a lesser riee, and that research should he encouraged in every extent from those who cooperate in the work. Suffice way possible, including fullest access to the library it to say that there exists a t Duke. a team of fifty cofacilities. There is no doubt that these as well as many workers, including staff, graduate fellows, assistants, other similar things which need not be listed here have and scholars, whose diversified research activities procontributedmuch to the efficient and harmonious opera- vide the leadership for the work of the department as a tion of the department. whole. With this leadership we like to believe that this With regard to a philosophy of education, however, is a place not only where manythings are done well perhaps the most outstanding item which could be each day, but also where no sincere student seeking insingled out is adherence to the principle,that students spiration, scientific knowledge, or kindly guidance is should be trained individually according to their inter- ever likely to be turned aside. '
