Periodic Tabloid

2012 is the 25^th anniversary of CHF’s Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry. To celebrate the Beckman Center’s remarkable achievements and its many accomplished fellows, we will be profiling one former fellow each month over the course of the year. This month we’d like you to meet Jennifer (Jenny) Rampling.

Much research exists showing the health benefits of regular physical activity, including reducing the risk of disorders everyone would dearly like to avoid like diabetes, cancer, and depression. Complicating such analyses is the fact that people who exercise are largely self-selected so it’s hard to prove causality rather than just association with untoward outcomes.

In his 1989 oral history interview University of Minnesota physics professor Alfred O. C. Nier claimed, “I suspect I’ve worked longer and more continuously in mass spectrometry than anybody ever has.” Nier’s career spanned decades, and with his specialization in an extremely technical field, he made an impact on some of the most important and exciting scientific achievements of the 20^th century.

Last week Erik Fyrwald, president of Ecolab (recently merged with Nalco) presented an address to CHF’s Joseph Priestley Society entitled “The Water Challenge: Improving Resourcefulness to Overcome Limited Resources.” In front of a packed lunchtime house he enumerated three overarching water challenges.

Anyone who is a regular reader of Periodic Tabloid could not have missed our celebration of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry. CHF wanted to cap the year with a retrospective exhibit that highlighted some of IYC's activities. The curatorial team decided to focus the exhibit around the IYC goal of “encouraging interest in chemistry among young people,” and developed the just-opened Inspiring Youth in Chemistry.

Young scientists hunting for their first academic faculty appointment face a daunting prospect. Naturally one wonders: how many make the grade and navigate an initial faculty appointment to promotion and a secure tenured university professorship?

When the Fresh Prince (known today as one Will Smith) was still living in West Philadelphia, CHF was in its infancy. So it’s doubtful he ever visited. Judging from this GIF, however, we think he might enjoy it.

Madonna’s iconic 1985 song “Material Girl” was an evocation of the physical world’s importance compared to the more often heralded—in music at least—emotional domain. The song and its associated music video were provocative and controversial, but also helped elevate the artist to the superstar level. Wary of comparative hyperbole, CHF and Discover Magazine nonetheless followed suit with a recent evening event called "Advanced Materials: Stories of Innovation."

2012 is the 25th anniversary of CHF’s Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry. To celebrate the Beckman Center’s remarkable achievements and its many accomplished fellows, we will be profiling one former fellow each month over the course of the year. This month we’d like to introduce you to Bruce Lewenstein.

At a ceremony last week the Charles Stark Draper Prize, one of the world’s preeminent awards for engineering achievement, was awarded to George H. Heilmeier, Wolfgang Helfrich, Martin Schadt, and T. Peter Brody. Sometimes referred to as “the Nobel Prize of engineering,” the Draper Prize is a $500,000 annual award that recognizes engineers whose accomplishments “have led to important benefits and significant improvement in the well-being and freedom of humanity.”