Glen E. Gordon University of Morylond College Pork, 20742
The Role of Chemistry Departments in the Environmental Education of Chemists
During the early 1970's there has been intense interest among citizens, students, government officials, and others in the preservation and enhancement of our environment. Since chemistry is involved in a major way in the detection, study, solution, and sometimes, unfortunately, the creation of environmental problems, many chemists have sought ways in which they can make significant, unique contributions in this emerging field. This enhanced iuterest in environmental chemistry presents both a challenge and an opportunity to college and university chemistry departments to devise research and educational programs toeprepare their students to make useful contrib;ti&s to the overall effort in occupations that fully utilize their talents as chemists. Considerable attention has been given to the role of chemistrv. d e ~ a r t m e n t sin the education of non-scientists in regard t o environmental degradation resulting from activities of a technological society. However, little discussion has occurred concerning the education of professional chemists for work in the environmental field. es~eciallva t the MS and PhD level. Thus, in assembling a session on environmental education at the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) in New York City, Nov. 1973, I felt we could provide a useful service to our field by discussing the "Environmental Education of the Professional Chemist." The three papers that follow are based on presentations of the speakers a t the symposium. The substance of the talk bv a fourth speaker, Prof. David Natusch of the ~ n i v e r s i t i oIllinois f is covered elsewhere.1 Since the studv of the environment involves manv disciplmes, a student cannot become expert in all areas-within a reasonable time of study. Thus, the major question touched on by all of the speakers was, "How can we design programs that have breadth in environmental areas and the usual depth of chemistry education without unduly lengthening the time a student stays in school?" One important point made by all of the speakers is that, whatever we do, the students must obtain excellence in a branch of chemistry and emerge with a clear identity as chemists. For example, Dr. George Pratt of the Environmental Protection Agency, states that his Agency, which is the largest single potential employer of students from these Droerams. seeks chemists with readilv identifiable . skills and experience, e.g., analytical chemists, pesticide chemists. and chemical toxicoloeists. However. to become effective in environmental work, students must receive
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some experience beyond that normally obtained by chemistry majors. At a minimum they must obtain a broad overview of the problems encountered and sufficient knowledge of other fields that they can communicate with experts in these fields. As Natusch emphasized, chemists who wish to become involved in field work need experience not normally obtained by chemists, i.e., strategies for sampling, maintenance of sample integrity, special sample preparations prior to analysis, and interpretation of results that takes into account the variability of environmental parameters. Another major problem discussed was that of gaining acceptance of research and teaching in environmental chemistry from more traditional colleagues in chemistry departments. Professor Lee notes that, until recently, most academic work in environmental quality control chemistry has been carried out in departments other than chemistry, e.g., in engineering or applied science departments. Often this has permitted greater flexibility than is possible within the rigid requirements of many chemistry departments. However, this is not a totally satisfactory solution, as students in engineering departments, for example, must often take courses designed to prepare conventional engineering students to meet licensing requirements. Thus, it would seem desirable for chemistry departments to take more active roles in meeting the needs for environmental chemistry research and teaching. The problem of acceptance within chemistry departments is a serious, real one and not simply a matter of taste. To earn acceptance and to train students properly, we who are active in the field must use care in selecting research problems that involve fundamental chemistry questions. Projects that involve mostly routine monitoring should better be left to governmental agencies. The insistence on a strong element of fundamental research is not a serious limitation, as there are enormous areas of chemistry in air, water, combustion processes, etc., that have received little study, although they involve interesting chemical questions. It should be noted that, especially in research, one must first learn about chemical effects in the natural environment before tackline the ~ r o b l e m sresulting from perturbations by man. In the final DaDer of the series. Professor Douelas Davis describes howwe have attempted to deal with i b e issues raised in designing a practical program for graduate training and research in environmental chemistry a t the University of Maryland.
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Editor's Note: This paper and the three following it are from the Symposium on "Environmental Education of the Professional Chemist" which was held at the Eastern Analytical Symposium, New York City, November 1973.
Natusch, D. F. S., Amer. Laboratory, 6 [I], 25 (1974).
Volume 51, Number 12, December 1974 / 769
