Chemical Education at American Institutions
H U G H S. TAYLOR Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Frirk Chemical Laboretory
OVER
A fireplace in the library of the Frick Chemical Laboratory a t Princeton is inscribed in stone a famous line from Lucretius much loved by the great Swedish chemist Arrhenius: Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere cnusas. This happiness in learning the causes of things has been woven into the fabric of chemical education a t Princeton during 150years The young Scotch chemist, John Maclean, brought to Princeton from Fcotland in 1795, established the first laboratory cowses in chemistry in'the colleges of this country. He was an early exponent of the new doctrines of Lavoisier and disputed successfully with Priestley concerning the errors of phlogiston. The tradition has continued unchanged through the years, and recent Princeton students have recognized the complete validity of the aphorism as they shared with Henry Eyring t,he joys of learning and discovery. Maclean, advising a former president of Princeton as t o the teaching of his science, was of the opinion that "it is impossible to acquire even a slight knowlege of chemistry without either making experiments or seeing them performed, and that to become proficient in the science it will require much practice as well as extensive reading." The influence of Maclean in the early days of science in Princeton continues as an inspiration to those who now follow him in the tasks of teaching and seeking in chemistry. During the last 50 years, since Woodrow Wilson's famous sesquicentennial address in 1896, a series of
profound educational changes have been achieved in instrurtion at Princeton. These, in their turn, have influenced the ptogram of chemical education in the University. In the Princeton setting a university has been established which can be differentiated from many others in the land. Princeton has become a residential undergraduate college ,and a graduate institution dominated by a residentiakgraduate college. There has been an emphasis on quality with a firm restriction on quantity. Out of Wilson's concept of the preceptorial system there has emerged an intimate relation between teacher and learner, a t once natural and productive. On a broad program of underclass instruction there has developed an upperclass program with fewer formal courses, more independent work by the student, and a close personal contact between the student and the supervisor of the independent study and of the senior thesis that emerges therefrom. Perhaps nowhere else in the country can one 6nd so large a measure of personalized education. What such principles imply in the special area of chemical education is here our principal concern. UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION
The pattern of instruction a t the freshman level is a t once both familiar and different. The students themselves have, already hefore entrance, been screened as to quality and thus constitute a more homogeneous group than normally obtained elsewhere. Two large
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courses in chemistry cater, respectively, to those who have had no previous highschool or preparatoryschool training in this science and to those who have had a t least one year, sometimes more preparation in the subject. A distinguishing feature of the freshman curriculum a t Princeton is a third course offered to a selected group of 20 to 25 students who, by reason of the high standard of achievement displayed in their entrance records, can, with advantage, be segregated from the larger group and be offered a maturer presentation of general chemistry. This s~ecializedtraining.* is expensive in time and instrlietional effort. From the first of such groups in fre~hlnanchemistry, now some 20 years ago, there can be named several present leaders in their age group in the profession. . All students in the restricted small group and students of high standing in the larger groups automatically satisfy the requirements of the curriculum in qualitative analysis in these freshman courses. A sophomore course in qualitative analysis has had, therefork, only a restricted clientele. In normal years a freshman class a t Princeton will comprise some 650 students. Two-thirds of these will usually take freshman chemistry, although there has not been for many years any chemistry requirement in the curriculum. The sophomore course in 'qualitative analysis has hitherto been offered to from 30 h 50 students. The plan of study for departmental students suggests that, in addition to the entrance requirement to the department through qualitative analysis, a student snould have taken two terms (one year) of college physics and two terms of calculus. The department also suggests for its prospective students the desirability of a reading knowlege of both French and German, a second laboratory science in addition to college physics, acquaintance with the principles of philosophy and logic, and training, if necessary, in English composition. It is assumed that, on a base of such breadth, a surer structure of proficiency in chemistry can he developed. A major fraction of the students entering the department for the upperclass program of study is drawn from students who entered college with some instruction in the subject. These are in general prepared to embark on the upperclass program already in the sophomore year. The requirement for departmental students involves six "designated" term coursestwo in quan-
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titative analysis, two in organic, and two in ihysical chemistry, one year's course of traihing in each. There is a requirement of eight term courses in all, but the two nondesignated term courses may be either courses within the department, such as one year of advanced inorganic, organic, or physical chemistry or of quantitative analysis, or they may be two terms of "cognate" upperclass courses. In the upperclass years the university requirement is limited to four courses per term in each of the two years (new regulations for 194748 reduce the course requirement for senior year to three courses per term). The equivalent of the normal fifth course of study is expected of the student as independent study conducted under the supervision of an adviser generally chosen by the student from among the faculty personnel and determined by the objectives of the student's own interests in such iudependent study. In 194748 a still greater allocation of time to independent study for seniors is involved. The Princeton program of-instruction in the advanced subjects of study is fashioned on a fundamental postulate, namely, that the introductory year courses in quantitiative analysis, organic and physical chemistry shall be the same for all types of student, whether for professional chemists, chemical engineers, premedical students, biologists, or physicists. The courses are basic. They are not tailored to meet the supposed needs of the chemical engineer, the electrical engineer, or the medical student. All alike receive the same basic course. There is naturally some grumbling, some complaint concerning material not deemed pertinent to specialized objectives. But, in many cases, years later, engineers, doctors, biologists have returned to offer thanks for a Spartan discipline sustained and now esteemed. For the University, this has meant a
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Elementary Laboratory
considerable economy in instructional expense. It is undoubtedly made possible in part by the restriction on quantity which characterizes the over-all university effort. But experience has shown that students other than the professionally oriented chemists can "take" such basic rigorous courses and do not need to he "accommodated" with diluted courses carrying such labels as "physical chemistry for engineers," "organic chemistry for medical students," and other such manifestations of weak educational policies. The texts employed hear witness to the high standards involved. The work required demands substantial increments of knowledge beyond those acquired diffusely over the whole area in modern presentations of "general" chemistry; it demands a year of steady advance in breadth and depth of knowledge in eachof the three fields. The courses exact high standards of instructional effort on the part of the professors, but the reward comes in the maturity of scholarship that a student thus brings to the advanced courses in each of these fields. In one of these the undergraduate will normally display qualities of proficiency in his senior year comparable with those of a good graduate student. In organic chemistry he will pursue a term's course in the identification of organic compounds, a term's course in stereoohemistry, tautomerism, condensations, purines, sterols, amino acids, and proteins. In physical chemistry there will he a rigorous course in chemical thermodynamics followed by an equally exacting course in chemical kinetics. There are no special term courses devoted to minor fractions of the subject. In all, 11 basic year courses comprise the total offering of the department from freshman through senior year, including that for selected freshmen previously noted. As to the wisdom of its technique, the department is
willmg to he judged by the quality of its product. It is in the pursuit of independent study that the undergraduate hest displays a growing measure of maturit.~.Here the student sets his own course, makes his own plans dictated by his personal interests or curiosity, formulates his own curriculum rather than one prescribed or demanded by the fa cult,^. The uudergraduate enters into a personal relation with a professor of his own choice; together they go on a joint excursion into a new euterprise. The discipline is a loose one. The student can see his supervisor as often or as seldom as he may choose. The worth of his achievement is measured a t the end of the junior and of the senior year by a thesis which records the year's adventure. The junior thesis is normally a literary effort, a record of the student's gain in knowlege in a particular area-hormones, crystalline enzymes, high polymers, viscosity, catalysis, analytical tools. In the senior year the topic may be expanded or changed. I t may progress from a literary effort to an experimental thesis. New contributions to .kn$wledge bring as a special reward election to associate membership 'in Sigma Xi toward the close of the senior year. The quality of senior theses is in many cases surprisingly high. One such thesis became the Franklin Medal Lecture of the American Philosophical Society by one of the professors-the topic, "Large Molecules through Atomic Spectacles," with models and Xodachrome photographs of organic molecules, natural and synthetic fibers. A group of student theses on the analyses oE ancient coinages became the backbone of a prize monograph on economic and social history of ancient Greece. One definitely average student fomd a focus of interest in blood groupings, obtained a summer job as technician in a University Hospital on display of his junior thesis. A lazy student who had neglected opportunities during junior year elected as a penalty to spend six weeks in the laboratory during the summer between junior and senior years and became, as his parent subsequent,ly remarked, transformed into a "graduate student" with a substantial exploration of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons from hydrogen-carbon monoxide mixtures. The Department of Chemistry would not consider a return to a curriculum which eliminated "independent study." In the coming year the department must meet a university demand for further broadening of the instruction a t the freshman level by which every entering
OCTOBER. 1947
student will take, among othen, a t least one "distribution course" in an experimental science. The department will offer Chemistry I, 11, a course of three lectures per week, with one afternoon of laboratory work, "concerning the nature of matter; a study of those hypotheses, observations, and interpretations which led to concepts of elements, atoms, molecules, and ions; concerning, also, the chemical reactions of matter and how the chemist has interpreted and learned to control these reactions." This will be no freshman chemistry course. Its success will not be measured by the number of basic chemical facts which a student will learn. On the contrary it does aim to inform him what are the methods of science as illustrated by a restricted but carefully selected group of chemical topics.
body of the size indicated it is apparent that from eight to ten men will, on the average, attain their doctorate in a given year; hence, each year, there will he vacaucies of this order, and those selected must he chosen from some 100 applicants in normal times. The intensity of the selection process somewhat simplifies the choice. Graduation with a Bachelor's degree and1 honors standing in a chemistry department of known high quality is an essential preliminary. Some carrdidates have already secured a Master's degree in their undergraduate institutions. The difficult problem in selection is the student with an outstanding record in one of the minor colleges. In this case, i t must be confessed, the pattern of future selection from such a college is often determined by the quality of the student first received. In every such case a second choice, a t a later date, is described in terms of the first GRADUATE STUDY man chosen. The selection process is a vital factor The graduate students in Princeton are also a highly in the success of the department. A poor choice inselected group of men within an over-all quota of grad- volves a larger fraction of the total effort than in the uate students in the University and not exceeding, in large institution. The department has never adopted prewar years, from 25 to 30 chemists. Within this the practice of admitting larger groups of first-year restriction as to numbers the departmental faculty students and curtailing numbers after one year of must contrive to make its contribution to the progress trial. It has attempted to make its first choice its of chemical science and must do so, therefore, in the final choice. This practically implies that a recomquality of the work produced rather than in quantity mendation for admission is a certificate that the atand volume. It must, if it is to compete effectively tainment of the Ph.D. is a highly probable event. Stawith the larger institutions, contrive that its average tistics reveal that this is true. graduate students compare effectively with the better The pattern of graduate instruction is a projection of students in the larger centers. Much will depend on the upperclass program of undergraduate work into the the effectiveness of its selection process from among more advanced phases of the science. There are basic the 'applicants for admission. With a graduate student graduate courses in physical, analytical, inorganic and organic chemistry, a full schedule of courses for a first year of graduate work. In the second year thenumber of courses pursued diminishes and the research program is initiated. Toward the close of the second year of graduate study, either in February or in May, the candidate normally presents himself for i h e General Examinatibn which is a t once the qualifying examination for an A.M. degree and for candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The examination is a comprehensive examination in the four fields of chemistry, one of them a special examination in the field in which the candidate will subsequently specialize, the other three a t a more moderate level of attainment. The successful ~ ~ ~~~~~~~h ~ d ~ ~ t ~ candidate must attain a.
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passing standard in the field of his choice and must also at,tain a passing standard in the average of the &her three. Excellence in one or other of the two is a prerequisite for election to the advanced fellowships in the department. Most graduate students on first admission act as assistants in instruction during the first year. In the second and third years an increasing proportion are free from teaching assignments. Classes with ten or a dozen students permit a personalized educational effort and a large measure of contact between professor and student. The high level of ability on the part of the average student permits the professor a higher standard of instruction and a faster pace. In the research laboratory the economy of numbers permits a liberality in the matter of equipment and facilities. Where few research projects are possible, there is an urgent pressure to arrange that every research project is significant, a great advantage to the young student. He senses his central position in the effortof discovery, is free entirely of the impression that he is but a minor unit in an over-all team effort. It is a matter of observation through the years that the performance of a student, given an initial sound basic training, is oftentimes a function of the quality of the problem to which the student was assigned. Twenty years ago the science departments in Princeton, analyzing the problem of increasing effectiveness of effort in the realm of scientific research, concluded that a moderate expansion a t the post-doctorate level would be preferable to a larger expansion a t the graduate student level. The provision of post-doctoral fellowships by the various foundations helped to confirm this decision. Up to war years, the research effort in Princeton has been markedly influenced by the contributions of visiting scientists who wished for additional experience beyond the doctorate level. National Research Council fellows, visiting fellows on the Rockefeller and Commonwealth Foundations, Scandinavian-American and Belgian-America? Foundations as well as post-doctoral research associates that local funds permitted, have ensured a steady output of research at a much higher level of attainment than is possible from graduate students in candidacy for the Doctor's degree. Within these years students from Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, England, Australia, Canada, and Japan have enriched the research and increased the scientific output of the department. Their contributions are an imporant fraction of the total scientific effort. They have a further factor of advantage. It seems certain that the higher level of research which they achieve increases the standard of research output by the graduate student. Through the years there have been from five to ten such postdoctoral collaborators in the laboratory each year, contributing probably one-third of the total research output. The University has always collaborated in this post-doctoral research by providing all the facilities required without charge for fees and expenses save in t h.. e rase .... of those fellows from foundations whichinsist ,on including such contributions in their gift.
The final year and a half of a normal three-year curriculum for the Ph.D. degree is practically exclusively occupied in experimental research and preparation of the thesis. Formal course instruction is largely at an end. In its place, weekly or semiweekly seminars, covering all branches of chemistry, biochemistry, and astronomical, mathematical, and physical research, are brought to the student's attention by fellow students, members of the university faculty, scientists in the neighboring laboratories, and visitors from near and far. Such seminars, vigorously led by those of the faculty most intensely involved in the research effort, have a stimulating and broadening influence on the maturing student. Here he is introduced to horizons of science far beyond his own specialized objectives. The level of excellence attained in the seminar, where attendance is entirely voluntary, has been found to be a good measure of the vitality of the department. The reenlations for the Ph.D. degree in chemistrv -~ a t Princeton react definitely in favor of participation by the students in the seminars. The old regulations for the final public oral examination required principally a defense of the thesis and an oral reexamination of the student's general knowlege of the subject. Following a procedure borrowed from the California Institute of Technology, the final examination now takes a different course. After acceptance of his thesis, the student is required to submit a group of ten or twelve propositions which may serve to indicate to the examiners areas of research in which the student proposes, given the opportunity, to conduct investigations. The majority of these propositions are to be in areas of the science outside of that in which the student's research has been conducted. This requirement compels a catholicity of interest in current research on the part of the student. He knows of this requirement soon after he enters thedepartment for graduate work. It colors all of his reading and intereit in current scientific literature. It has been found to induce in the student a more critical analysis of what he reads. Any deficiency of knowledge or of argument which a current publication may reveal is "grist for the mill" at the oral examination. In compiling his propositions, also, the student writes his own spec;fication of his research ability. A perusal of the propositions by the examiners serves to define immediately the quality of the candidate's mind, even before the oral examination takes place. It can easily be- used to postpone the final examination of an obviously weak candidate since the examiners can decide, before examination, that t h e propositions do not meet the necessary standards. Years ago the final oral examination was generally a dull, humdrum, occasionally painful affair. For several years now the oral examination in which the propositions are expounded or defended against faculty criticism can be a stimulating experience to the faculty member. The Department of Chemistry a t Princeton will not readily return to its old method of conducting the final stage of the journey to the Ph. D. ~
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A relatively small graduate department, such as that a t Princeton, cannot offer the diversity of experience in one laboratory that can he secured in the larger institutions, state or private. Care to secure some measure of balance between the several branches of the science is imperative. Nevertheless, what is really involved is a training in the methods and techniques of scholarship and research, and these can he learned in any particular area and are applicable to all. It is seldom that a famous scientist becomes famous in the actual domain in which he did his graduate work. Breadth of knowledge in the domain and an acute sense of the methods, techniques, and limitations of experimental research can serve the student well in any later problems. At
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Princeton any restriction due to size is mitigated by the wealth of near neighbors that we possess. The Rockefeller Institute, the Institute for Advanced Study, t h e Textile Research Institute, and last, but not least, the research laboratories of the Radio Corporation of America provide the student with opportunities beyond' those that the University could possibly provide. In the residential Graduate College, under the shadow of the Cleveland Tower, in a setting of surpassing loveliness, the University does provide an environment where the chemist can mingle with 200 other graduate students, of many different interests in all the realms of learning, can learn from them, and with them, the essential unity of knowledge and of truth.
