EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
I
N THE spring of 1908 the University of Upsala conferredits doctorate on a young man, The Svedberg, who had fulfilled its requirements for the title in record time, a four-year period against the eight or ten necessary for the average student. In another four years, a The Svedherg brief enough apprenticeship as docent, demonstrator, and special lecturer, Svedberg a t the age of twenty-eight was appointed to a professorship of physical chemistry by his alma mater. Already he had behind him a record of striking accomplishments, both as student and independent investigator. New methods in the preparation of colloids had first engaged his studies, and his work on light absorption, diffusion, Brownian movements, and fluctuations had come to the defense of the molecule in the attack on its reality by Ostwald and his school. Svedberg's rapid professional advancement came about not only on account of his personal adaptation to research through intellectual preparation and experimental skill, but, added to these, an extraordinary power of work and the will to exercise that power. With the exception of one year spent in the United States and Canada, his career has developed at Upsala. His work has been almost entirely in the field of colloids and has been concerned progressively with the measurement of the molecule, its shape as determined by experiment in diffusion and electrical conduction through colloidal systems, electric colloid synthesis and measurement, cataphoresis in the ultramicroscope, the mechanism of the photographic process, and determination of the molecular weights of proteins. His very recent studies on the molecular weight of insulin have had results which are discouraging to hopes of its possible synthesis. Svedberg's grasp of mathematical physics has been the basis of the development of his theories, but his experimental technic shares equal credit in his remarkable results. It is of particular interest to American readers to know that the conception of the ultracentrifuge machines occurred during the period in which he directed colloidal research a t the University of Wisconsin in the academic year 1922-23. These machines were developed, however, on his return to Upsala, and have since figured largely in colloidal measurement, utilizing the principle that the molecules of a dissolved substance are flung outward toward the periphery of motion and thus separated from the swiftly centrifuging solvent. The record of division of the particles is taken by a photographic attachment, by means of which the measurement is accomplished. The most minute attention to the care and improvement of these complicated machines has been a responsibility that Svedberg has shared with trusted assistants and students but never delegated to any. In the doubtful days of their early development, he slept for weeks in the laboratory with them and for many years whenever he had occasion to he absent from the lahora825
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MAY, 1931
tory their work ceased until his return. Their continued approach t o perfection has repaid this devotion-the latest modification of the machine approximates a centrifugal force 200,000 times that of gravity. The steadily increasing importance of Svedberg's ideas and methods, and their practical significance t o the physiological and medical sciences and to industry through inorganic, organic, and physico-chemical media. have attracted wide recognition and impelled the Swedish government a few years ago t o house the work of its distinguished son in a new laboratory. Here, assisted by growing numbers of students, both local and foreign, Svedberg's work in colloids, honored by the award of the Nobel prize in chemistry for 192G, goes on. Svedberg will reach his forty-seventh birthday on August 30th next. He was born in Valbo, Sweden, and received his early education a t Koping School, Orebro High School, and Gothenburg Modern School, from which he passed to his university training. In appearance and manner he is young for his years, diffident with strangers, but with friends and associates the most genial and unaffected of men. While the great interest of his life lies of course in his laboratory, and the greater part of his time is spent there, he has nevertheless found i t possible to pursue a number of hobbies to a surprising extent. He has attained considerable success as a sketcher in water colors and in this way and by means of remarkable skill in photography, his sympathy with Nature has found delightful outlets. That he is much more than an amateur botanist is evidenced by his collection of Swedish flora which he has presented to the Upsala University. The flowers of all Scandinavia are well known t o him, and those of the northern United States became familiar also during his stay in this country. This botanical knowledge has made him a popular speaker before the Natural Science Society of Upsala. His habitual ten-mile walk on Sunday mornings in every sort of weather bespeaks his love for the out-of-doors, and his extensive literary library, in which current American fiction has a conspicuous place, is an indication of his domestic recreation. The privileged few who have penetrated his reserve and found their way to his friendship experience therefore keen pleasure and intellectual stimulus in his companionship. The J O U R N A L O F CHEMICAL EDUCATION i s indebted to M r . Sederholm, managing director of Nobelstiftelsen, Stocklaolm, Sweden, for the accompanying photograph of Dr. Suedberg. It also acknowledges with gratitude the courtesy of M r . Arne Tiselius of Upsala University, Dr. J. B. Nichols, E. I. d u Pant de Kentours & Co., Dr. Francis F . Heyroth of the University of Cincinnati, and Dr. Alfred J . Stamm of the Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Ilrisconsin, for much of the information on which the foregoing biographical sketch i s based.
VOL. 8, NO. 5
A .
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
827
LL of us are familiar, at least by hearsay, with the academic instit u t ~ o nknown as the non-resident lectureship. Nearly all of our wealthier and more distinguished universities negotiate such arrangements regularly or occasionally. Likewise the international Teacher exchange of professors is not an unknown custom. Why Exchange not also such exchanges between our domestic universities and colleges? It is true that we usually think of such arrangements in connection with men who have achieved unusual prominence in special fields of research. In these instances the primary benefits accruing to both faculties and student bodies of the exchanging institutions are obvious and require no discussion here. But we might well give some consideration also to the secondary benefits, if any, which may arise out of the effects of the practice upon the professor involved. Probably when distinguished investigators are exchanged, these effects are of distinctly minor importance as compared with the primary objectives in view. I t seems to us, however, that they might well assume relatively greater significance if the custom of exchange were to become general upon what we may designate without offense, we hope, as a somewhat humbler level. Many a young and promising, but as yet undistinguished, instructor might find i t both desirable and profitable, we believe, to round out his education in certain departments if he could find i t possible to transfer to another institution for a year or two. It might be that he could quickly acquire certain details of a specialized experimental technic which would greatly facilitate his later progress in the field of his greatest interest if he could work in cooperation with a master of that technic for a short time. It may be that he finds his progress blocked or seriously retarded by unfamiliarity with a specialized field of theory not included in his previous education and difficult to master by solitary reading. The obstacles might well be swept away if only he were employed a t an institution where he would have opportunity to "listen in" on Professor Blank's lectures and to confer with him personally occasionally. I t may be that he has in mind a problem which seems highly promising but which can be solved only with the aid of highly specialized and expensive apparatus which his own institution would not feel justified in purchasing. Utopia University has such apparatus, if only he could transfer his teaching there for a year. Other possibilities readily suggest themselves. We believe that exchanges might very properly be made in some cases with no more definite objective in view than a temporary change of scene and a broadening of contacts and experience. While the scheme we have outlined has apparent and very attractive
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potentialities the fact remains that no such custom has been generally established and that i t is obviously difficult for an individual to negotiate an exchange on his own initiative. The Committee on Teacher Exchange of the 9.C. S. Division of Chemical Education was created for the express purpose of smoothing out such difficulties. To date i t has not been very active, partly, we believe, because its existence and its function have not been widely advertised, and partly because so little general thought has been given to the subject of teacher exchange. An announcement concerning the committee is to he found elsewhere in this number (p. 1012). To avoid any possible misconception as to the scope of the committee's work i t may not be amiss to quote its chairman, Dr. B. S. Hopkins: It seems to me the point should be emphasized that our committee is not undertaking the operation of an employment bureau. We have no means of locating people who are out of a job. Neither can we hope to be of much service t o those who are ambitious for a better position. It seems to me that our function will be limited for the present to two distinct purposes. One is the exchange of teachers who have served far a long period in one locality with some one else who is similarly situated. Both should profit by the change in atmosphere. It is obvious that these positions should be of about the same character and compensation. A second function which we may he able to carry out is t o locate an occasional teacher to replace some person in a larger institution who is t o be absent on leave. I am not so sure that we shall be able to do much in this latter way but we can a t least ~~
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Mv thounht . is that we had best confine our attention a t first to exchanges in this country. If the plan can be operated successfully here, we might be able to extend it t o the point of negotiating similar exchanges with foreign teachers of chemistry.
We hope to learn in the near future that a number of teachers have availed themselves of the services of the committee in the interests of self-improvement and increased teaching efficiency.
