Priestley Medal Best way to conduct research
Henry Eyring wins 1975 Priestley Medal The 1975 Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society will be awarded to Dr. Henry Eyring, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy at the University of Utah. The Priestley Medal is the highest award of ACS and will be presented to Dr. Eyring at the ACS meeting in Philadelphia next spring in recognition of his distinguished services to chemistry. Although he has worked in many areas of chemistry, Dr. Eyring is best known for his formulation and development of absolute rate theory of chemical reactions. The original formulation of the theory was begun in Berlin in 1929 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, although Dr. Eyring says that his interest in reaction rates was first activated by Dr. Farrington Daniels at the University of Wisconsin in 1928 where he was a research associate. Since that time Dr. Eyring has authored or coauthored eight books and more than 500 scientific papers, and has directed the research of 115 Ph.D. candidates. In recounting his scientific career for C&EN, Dr. Eyring leaves no doubt of his vitality and continuing interest in chemical research, despite the fact that he originally intended to be a mining engineer. That came about, he says, because of the interest of a high school teacher who noticed Dr. Eyring's strong interest in mathematics and recommended that he study electrical or mining engineering. Dr. Eyring decided against electrical engineering because "I thought surely that I would kill myself with all that electricity around." But having obtained his degree in mining engineering in 1923, he decided that mining, at least at that time, wasn't much safer. In his first job, at Inspiration Copper Co., he found that "Newton was wrong . . . it wasn't apples you had to worry about but falling rocks." Mining was replaced by metallurgy (M.S. in 1924) and a job in a copper smelter where the sulfur fumes were even less attractive than falling rocks. "I figured that I would get enough of that in the hereafter, so I went to [the University of California] Berkeley to study chemistry." Dr. Eyring's frank comments on his experiences in mining and smeltering don't mask the basic reason for his gravitation toward chemistry; he was 18
C&EN July 22, 1974
is to do a lot of thinking. People think best alone, at least most of the time
and remains interested in fundamental scientific problems. Despite his interest in chemistry he "always thought chemists were a funny lot . . . because they were so fussy about me spilling a little bit of precipitate and then using a camel's hair brush to get it up . . . and then knocking off 10% before they found whether I had gathered it all up." After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1927, Dr. Eyring spent a year at the University of Wisconsin where Dr. Daniels recommended him for a National Research Fellowship at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. It was here, while working with Prof. Michael Polanyi, that he organized the work of many other people into what has become known as the absolute rate theory. Dr. Eyring returned to Berkeley for a year as lecturer in chemistry in 193031. At that time he presented a paper at the ACS meeting in Indianapolis that was heard by Sir Hugh Taylor and resulted in an invitation to come to Princeton University. Dr. Eyring remained at Princeton until 1946. It was at Princeton that he firmly established himself as a major force in chemical research. He also found time to become a naturalized citizen. When his grandparents went to Mexico as missionaries in the 1880's, they elected to become Mexican citizens, apparently not realizing that their children and grandchildren would also be Mexican citizens. It was not until his year in Berlin that he found to his extreme discomfort that he was not, technically, a U.S. citizen. At Princeton he solved the citizenship problem by becoming naturalized in the same court that had naturalized Albert Einstein a few months earlier. After World War II, Dr. Eyring responded to the wishes of his wife and the offer of a deanship from the University of Utah "by returning to the Salt Lake." Since 1946 he has been instrumental in raising the University of Utah to prominence in the scientific
world. It was at Utah that many of the applications of his absolute rate theory were made. Included in these applications are the molecular mechanisms of general anesthesia and the dynamics of life, at least as they apply to the process of aging. Dr. Eyring traces his interest in the biological processes back to 1942 when he became involved with Dr. Frank Johnson of Princeton in studies of fireflies. The initial study was determining why there was a variation in light intensity from fireflies with changes in temperature and pressure. The association with Dr. Johnson eventually led to the publication of "The Kinetic Basis of Molecular Biology" in 1954, and to his most recent book, "The Theory of Rate Processes in Biology and Medicine," which was published this spring. But his interest in biology and medicine is strongly influenced by the death of his first wife from cancer and his own medical problems. "When these things touch you personally, you develop a great enthusiasm for solving them . . . also, I sort of carry my own aging laboratory around with me." This refers to his work on the theory of aging, at least as manifested in chemical kinetics. In the new age of computers, Dr. Eyring believes that scientists can become too engrossed in making calculations. "Calculations are necessary," he says, "but only if there are good ideas to begin with." He believes that the best way to conduct research is to do a lot of thinking. "People think best alone, at least most of the time." Being a confirmed optimist, Dr. Eyring nevertheless suggests that there will be some hard times in the future. The energy problem, "the problem of the age," will tax the professional skills of scientists and engineers and also will test the moral fiber of the U.S. in the process. The only reasonable solution, he believes, is fusion, but it will be a hard job to develop fusion to a workable state without some hard times along the way. Hard times or not, Dr. Eyring retains the basic belief that the U.S. and the world will overcome its difficulties, primarily through hard work and the intervention of the Almighty. "I couldn't be anything but optimistic with 240 first cousins."
