A
SYMPOSIUM
The Teaching of Colloid and Surfa c e C h e m i s ~ r y
This symposium a t the 1961 Chicago ACS meeting was an outgrowth of a recent appraisal of the status of teaching the suhjects of chief concern t o the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. At about the same time and independently, the Division of Chemical Education, in its on-going series of symposiums aimed a t the broad spectrum of teaching areas, anticipated sufficient interest in a similar symposium. Meanwhile, a thorough survey of the ACS accredited chemistry department,^ by K. J. Mysels and R. A. Beebe, and reported by Mysels,' revealed wide variations in t,he emphasis give11 to the subject of colloid chemistry in the chemistry curriculum. The survey showed, for example, that 34% of the departments offpr special courses in t,he subject, and nearly all general chemist,ry courses include lectures on colloids. Department chairmen, according to the survey, indicated that the importance of the colloids subject, viewed within the framework of a modern chemistry curriculum, is fairly evenly balanced. Some think it may he waning, while a like number consider it on the upswing. The aim of the symposium mas t,o bring to the nonspecialist t,eacher a t least part of t,he story of modern colloid and surface chemist,ry. I t became obvious early that only a small part of the subject could be adequately treated. The rich heritage of classical background in the work of Nernst,, William Ostwald, Graham, and others, has been added to in recent decades by the contributions of Freandlich, Einstein, Svedberg, Perrin, Langmuir, Donnan, McBain, Debye, Mark, and many more. At times, colloid chemistry may have appeared to be on the chemical fringe; even 40 years ago Wolfgang Ostwald described t,hc subject as "the land of neglected dimensions." But it has come of age long since.2 The breadth aud importance of colloids are manifested by the appearance of several colloid specialists among the Nobel laureates. I n more mundane terms, the subject is vital to such areas as detergents, cosmetics, metallurgy, medicinals, polymers, clays, catalysts, proteins, etc. Consequently, the
symposium was planned as somewhat of a n introduction to a long-range objective of helping to keep the moderu academician up-to-date in a rapidly growing field of chemical knowledge. The symposium was keynoted with a paper by Robert Hansen dealing with the present status of the subject in terms of its solved and unsolved fundamental problems. Next came a pointed discussion of the need for chemists specially trained in colloids and surf m e chemistry who can actively participate in the frontier research on modern colloids. The remainder of the symposium was a collection of papers discussing the teaching of the subject a t various levels: the general, analytical, physical, and graduate courses. In addition to the papers included in this issue, the symposium included Mysel's review of the survey cit,ed above, an examination by W. H. Slabaugh of the amount of material on colloids included in general chemistry courses and text,books, and a spirit,ed panel discussion of the merits of the specialized undergraduate course in colloid and surface chemistry. The panel members, Roger Ray, Norman Hackerman, and Charles Tanford, defended both sides of the argument on the place of a colloid course in a chemistry curriculum. Even though thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and molecular structure are treated in other courses, it was maintained that there are unique and often-neglected phenomena associated with the behavior of matter a t interfaces that deserve attention a t the undergraduate level. I n another paper, X. J. Mysels dealt with the problem of what every PhD student. should know about colloid and surface chemistry, and how a specialist in this area should be trained. Finally, the symposium supplied a n appropriate means of reporting on the 1961 summer conference on the fundamental aspects of colloid and macromolecular chemistry. This report, which follows, indicates the urgency of re-evaluating the place of this suhject in the chemist's training. The kind and helpful assistance of Dr. Mysels in organizing this symposium and presiding a t the first session is gratefully acknowledged.
MYSELS,K. J., THIS JOURNAL, 37,355 (1960). See for example FERRY, 3. D., THIS JOURNAL, 38, 110 (1961).
W. H. Slabaugh, Symposium Choirmon
166 / Journol of Chemical Education
Oregon Stote University, Corvallis
