Spring 2010 BBLs
Brown Bag Lectures (BBLs) are a series of weekly, informal talks by CHF fellows and members of the academic and business communities on topics involving the history of chemistry, political and social issues of importance to chemists and chemical engineers, and issues affecting the future of chemical research.
The below pages represent a partial selection of the BBLs held during the Spring 2010 season.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is a project of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry and the Othmer Library of Chemical History.
For additional information on BBLs, contact bbl@chemheritage.org.
May 4, 2010
This talk focused on the history of innovation at the Rohm and Haas Company (now part of Dow Chemical) during its first 100 years, with reference to one of its most important products: Plexiglas acrylic plastic.
May 11, 2010
Nicholas Best was a spring 2010 CHF Fellow. His research project is entitled “Lavoisier as Historian of Chemistry and Philosopher of Science.”
May 18, 2010
This talk showed how instrument makers, notably the British firm Adam Hilger, Ltd., played an essential role in the transformation of astrophysical spectroscopic and interferometric instruments and methods for chemical and industrial uses in the early 20th century.