Biographical Memoirs Volume 54 (1983) / Chapter Skim
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James Bryant Conant
James Bryant Conant
Pages 90-125
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From page 91... ...
He was a vigorous and prolific organic chemist, devoted to interpreting chemical reactions on a physical level and applying such knowledge to the structures of important natural proclucts, especially chlorophyll. After fourteen years on the Harvard faculty, he served as Harvard's president from 1933 to 1953 and took an important part in organizing the United States scientific effort in World War TI.
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From page 92... ...
Politically she was basically a dissenter.2 After six years in public elementary school, Conant was enrolled in the Roxbury Latin School, which was highly rate for its college preparatory courses, inclucling physics and chemistry. The school's greatest asset, for Conant's purpose, was the science teacher Newton Henry Black, who not only gave a stimulating course but helped and encouraged the boy chemist at every turn.
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From page 93... ...
This essentially extracurricular activity gave such mutual satisfaction that Conant became the assistant in KohIer's advanced organic chemistry course during his first two years in graduate school. He reconciled his newly found enthusiasm for organic chemistry with Black's blueprint for his education by arranging to do a double thesis two years at "half time" (discounted by the assistantship)
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From page 94... ...
A type of investigation much relied upon by later workers in physical organic chemistry was developed in the studies by Conant, Kirner, anct Hussey (1924, 1925) of the reactivity of a series of organic chlorides toward potassium iodicle.
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From page 95... ...
Further progress wouIcI have to await detailecl structures by X-ray spectroscopy and a more refined molecular orbital theory, which later interpreted the geometric changes at iron associated with the attachment of molecular oxygen. One of his last chemical accomplishments was the first separation (with W
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From page 96... ...
Other chemical research problems that engaged Conant's attention less comprehensively included the pinaco! reduction, the effect of steric hindrance on the reaction of Grignard reagents with carbonyl compounds, diazo coupling, special cases of acid-base catalysis, and the effect of high pressure on organic reactions.
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From page 97... ...
For several years before the retirement of President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, there had been general speculation as to his probable successor. A list of the forty candidates consiclered most probable in Harvard circles die!
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From page 98... ...
During the postwar period there was an extensive reevaluation of the professional schools; the School of Education, for example, was reoriented toward the training of school administrators rather than teachers. Also under Conant's leadership, Harvard abandoned the anachronistic practice of teaching every unclergraduate course twice, once for Harvard men and in a second section for Racicliffe women.
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From page 99... ...
To this close friend of Hitler, Conant replied in an open letter: "We are unwilling to accept a gift from one who has been so closely associated with the leadership of a political party which has inflicted damage on the universities of Germany through measures which have struck at principles we believe to be fundamental to universities throughout the world." Conant's long-helct conviction of the seriousness of the Nazi threat lecI, after the invasion of Norway, to an activist position as he became one of the charter members of the Committee to Defencl America by Ai~ling the Allies. He devoted himself to overcoming the isolationism of the clay, testifying in favor of the LencI-Lease Bill and promoting an innovative civilian organization for military preparedness, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)
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From page 100... ...
Through the NDRC, for the first time, the considered views of civilian scientists on military matters could be heard directly by the government even when they disagreed with the prevailing military doctrine. During this period of preparedness in early March 1941 Conant macle a fruitful trip to England, establishing many scientific contacts as well as being received by the king, by Prime Minister Churchill, anct by members of the cabinet.
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From page 101... ...
When President Truman in 1950 decided to proceed with development of the hydrogen bomb, it was contrary to a unanimous recommendation of the AEC General Advisory Committee. In the same year, however, the president appointed Conant chairman of the new National Science BoarcI, the policymaking body of the National Science Foundation.
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From page 102... ...
Both the character and the mechanics of this mission to Germany contrasted sharply with Conant's intensive national service during the war. In that grave emergency, American
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From page 103... ...
For him to become ambassador it was necessary not only that the Allied Powers ratify the treaty setting up the Fecleral Republic (which required, in the case of the French, over two years after the signing of the treaty) , but also that the United States Senate confirm his appointment as ambassador.
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From page 104... ...
, Conant resigned as ambassador ant! turned with vigor to one of his long-stancling interests, American secondary education.
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From page 105... ...
protest among professional educators, an uproar Conant partially escaped by being on his mission in Berlin at the time of publication. In the last of the reports from this study of education, Shaping Educational Policy (1964)
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From page 106... ...
His most memorable remark on that occasion to his prospective research student was: "Frankly, I'm a slave driver." ~ took this for the hyperbole that it was; it was already evident from the record that he was in academic chemistry to get things done, but none of his scientific work could have been clone by driving slaves. His attitude toward his students and their research problems was always one of open-mincledness.
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From page 107... ...
After reading one former student's first independent paper, he wrote: "l hope you will not continue to work in this field...." To another, who showed him a proposed plan for a National Research Fellowship: "If this is completely successful, will it be anything more than a footnote to a footnote in the history of organic chemistry? " Both students took his acivice and lived to appreciate its wisdom.
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From page 108... ...
The vitality and rational resourcefulness of James Bryant Conant impinged in so many ways on the science, technology, education, and fecleral policy of twentieth-century America that it is certain that without him these aspects of life today 7My Several Lives, p.
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From page 109... ...
1978. He is survived by his wife, Grace Thayer Richards Conant, two sons, lames Richards ant]
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From page 110... ...
1948 Honorary Commander, Order of the British Empire 1949 Gutenberg Award, Book Manufacturers' Institute, Inc. 1951 Citation for Distinguished and Exceptional Public Service, City of New York 1952 Freedom House Award 1956 Charles Lathrop Persons Award, American Chemical Society 1957 Grand Cross of the Service Order of the Federal Republic of Germany 1959 Woodrow Wilson Award for Distinguished Service, Woodrow Wilson Foundation 1960 Research Institute Award, Research Institute of America 1960 Award for Distinguished Service in School Administration, American Association of School Administrators 1962 Frank H
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From page 111... ...
and Atomic Energy Commission 1977 Clark Kerr Medal, University of California, Berkeley ELECTIVE AND HONORARY MEMBERSHIPS National Academy of Sciences Alpha Omega Alpha (medical honor society) The Chemists' Club Society of Chemical Industry Educational Institute of Scotland, Honorary Fellow American Institute of Chemists Royal Society, Foreign Member Royal Institute of Chemistry, Honorary Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina Phi Beta Kappa Sigma Xi Alpha Chi Sigma HONORARY DOCTORAL DEGREES 1933 University of Chicago 1934 Columbia University Stevens Institute of Technology Boston University New York University Tufts University Princeton University Yale University 1935 Amherst College College of Charleston University of Wisconsin
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From page 112... ...
112 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1936 College of William and Mary Oxford University 1938 Williams College Dartmouth College 1939 Tulane University 1940 University of California University of Pennsylvania 1941 Queens University Cambridge University University of Bristol 1944 University of Algiers 1945 McGill University University of North Carolina University of Toronto 1946 University of London 1947 University of the State of New York University of Illinois Hamilton College University of Lyon Baylor University University of West Virginia 1948 University of Massachusetts Northeastern University 1949 Yeshiva University Wesleyan University University of Michigan 1950 Swarthmore College 1951 Jewish Theological Seminary of America University of New Zealand Canterbury University College University of Melbourne University of Adelaide Colgate University Birmingham University Freie Universitat Berlin 1955 Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science Harvard University 1956 University of Hamburg 1960 Colby College 1961 Keio University 1966 University of New Hampshire
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From page 113... ...
Holt. Addition reactions of phosphorus halides.
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From page 114... ...
VII. The addition of alkoxy and aroxy chlorophosphines to carbonyl compounds.
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From page 115... ...
The formation of free radicals by reduction with vanadous chloride. Preliminary paper.
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From page 116... ...
Sloan. The dissociation into free radicals of substituted dixanthyls.
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From page 117... ...
I The use of the chloranil electrode in glacial acetic acid and the strength of certain weak bases.
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From page 118... ...
The oxidation-reduction potentials of hemin and related substances.
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From page 119... ...
The determination of the strength of weak bases and pseudo bases in glacial acetic acid solutions.
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From page 120... ...
Schultz. The dissociation into free radicals of di-tert-butyltetra-diphenylethane.
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From page 121... ...
Chow. The potential of free radicals of the triphenylmethyl type in glacial acetic acid solutions.
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From page 122... ...
1936 With Max Tishler. Organic Chemistry.
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From page 123... ...
Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry. New York: Macmillan Co.
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From page 124... ...
New York: McGraw-Hill. 1964 Shaping Educational Policy.
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