Jeffrey I. Seeman

Jeffrey I. Seeman (May 25, 1946, Jersey City, New Jersey) is a historian of science, chemist, and Visiting Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia.[1] He is the editor of 20+ volumes in the series Profiles, pathways and dreams : autobiographies of eminent chemists.[2][3][4] In addition to writing extensively as both a scientist and historian, he has produced short films for historical and educational use.

Jeffrey I. Seeman
Born (1946-05-25) May 25, 1946
Jersey City, New Jersey
Alma materStevens Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley
AwardsHIST Award, ACS (2017)
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, History
InstitutionsUniversity of Richmond

Seeman has chaired the Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and created the division's Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award, first given in 2006 to mark "breakthrough publications, books and patents worldwide" in the field of chemistry.[5] Seeman was awarded the 2017 HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the Division of the History of Chemistry of the ACS, presented on March 20, 2018.[6]

Education

Seeman attended the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, graduating with a bachelor's degree, high honors, in chemistry in 1967. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1971.[2]

Career

Scientist

Seeman worked at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on a fellowship, before joining the Philip Morris Research Center in Richmond, Virginia. He worked there from 1973 to 1999, publishing more than 90 scientific papers and filing patents.[2]

Historian

A sabbatical year at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at Oxford University in 1983-1984 inspired Seeman's interest in the history of organic chemistry, and the beginning of his second career. Between 1990 and 1997 Seeman proposed and edited 20 volumes of autobiographies of organic chemists, published by the American Chemical Society and Oxford University Press under the series title Profiles, Pathways and Dreams.[7][2][8] The series contains autobiographies of Arthur Birch, Andrew Streitweiser, Bruce Merrifield, Carl Djerassi, Ernest Eliel and Koji Nakanishi, among others, with the goal of portraying "science as a human endeavor".[9] They have been described as "lively and informative" and "exemplary in this genre" of scientific biography.[10] After his retirement from Philip Morris in 1999, Seeman became a fellow, and later a member of the board of directors, at the Chemical Heritage Foundation.[2]

From 2005 to 2006, he served as Chair of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (HIST).[11] He created the Citation for Chemical Breakthrough (CCB) Award program to commemorate international historically important publications in the field of chemistry.[5][2][11] He has also organized history of chemistry symposia for many ACS conferences.[2] As of 2007, he joined the University of Richmond.[12]

As both a scientist and a historian, he is able to write knowledgeably about scientists such as Robert Burns Woodward,[13][14][15][16][17] their work, and their disputes.[18] He has published more than 55 papers on the history and sociology of chemistry.[2] These include studies with Mark House into authorship and the perceptions and crediting of contributions by working scientists.[19][20][21][22] Seeman has been active on the advisory board of The Journal of Organic Chemistry,[23] and of Accountability in Research, and was the guest editor of their edition on Ethics and Responsible Conduct.[24]

Seeman's writing on education includes the incorporation of history and biography into chemistry curricula.[25] Seeman produces short films or videos on the history and sociology of chemistry, for education and historical use.[15] He produced an accompanying video for the book Arnold O. Beckman: One Hundred Years of Excellence.[26] The Eminent Organic Chemists series interviewed 20 organic chemists as part of the 100th birthday of the Division of Organic Chemistry (ORGN) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2008.[27][28][8] The Archimedes Initiative, which focused on students involved in high school science fairs, received a Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation award in 2009.[29]

Seeman has also been a consultant to the United States Post Office on their series of stamps commemorating American Scientists.[12]

Awards

In 2007, Seeman received the Distinguished Service Award from the Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society.[3] Seeman was named the 2017 Wheeler Lecturer by the Royal Society of Chemistry in London, for significant contributions to the history of chemistry.[30] Also in 2017, Seeman was awarded the HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the Division of the History of Chemistry, to be presented on March 20, 2018.[6]

gollark: It's shiny and a good conductor too.
gollark: S P E C T R O M E T R Y
gollark: You can scan their composition remotely I'm sure.
gollark: Platinum is great! It's a good conductor and doesn't tarnish!
gollark: Platinum would go down in value and we could all have nice platinum things.

References
  1. "Dr. Jeffrey I. Seeman". University of Richmond. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  2. "Jeffrey I. Seeman (1946 - )" (PDF). Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  3. "Distinguished Service Award Dr. Jeffrey I. Seeman" (PDF). Bulletin of the Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society: 2. September 14, 2007.
  4. Kauffman, George B.; Kauffman, Laurie M. (1999). "Book Review A Fifty-Year Love Affair with Organic Chemistry". The Chemical Educator. 4 (3). Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  5. "Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Awards". Division of the History of Chemistry. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  6. "HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry". Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  7. Hessenbruch, Arne (1998). Reader's guide to the history of science. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 535–536. ISBN 9781884964299. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  8. Seeman, Jeffrey I. (2 January 2009). "Happy 101st Birthday to the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ORGN)". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 74 (1): 1. doi:10.1021/jo8022846.
  9. "Jeff, Chemistry Historian". Just Like Cooking. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  10. Nye, Mary Jo (2007). "Scientific biography in the history of chemistry: The role of Dexter and Edelstein award winners in the last fifty years" (PDF). Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 32 (1). Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  11. Seeman, Jeffrey L. (2013). "HIST'S CITATION FOR CHEMICAL BREAKTHROUGH AWARDS: THE FIRST PAPER OR THE "BREAKTHROUGH" PAPER?" (PDF). Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 38 (1). Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  12. "JEFFREY I. SEEMAN, B.S., Ph.D." (PDF). Semantic Scholar. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  13. Halford, Bethany (January 11, 2016). "C&EN Talks With Chemistry Historian Jeffrey I. Seeman About The Origins Of A Groundbreaking Theory Organic chemist offers insights into his latest paper on the early days of R. B. Woodward and Roald Hoffmann's Nobel Prize-winning collaboration". Chemical & Engineering News. 94 (2): 29–30. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  14. Halford, Bethany (April 10, 2017). "Remembering organic chemistry legend Robert Burns Woodward Famed chemist would have been 100 this year". Chemical & Engineering News. 95 (15): 28–34. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  15. Halford, Bethany (February 26, 2007). "Quinine Revisited ... Again Historical research helps untangle the complex mythology of quinine synthesis". Science & Technology. 85 (9): 47–50. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  16. Seeman, Jeffrey I. (23 October 2017). "R. B. Woodward's Letters: Revealing, Elegant and Commanding". Helvetica Chimica Acta. 100 (12): e1700183. doi:10.1002/hlca.201700183.
  17. Seeman, Jeffrey I. (4 October 2016). "Woodward's Words: Elegant and Commanding". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 55 (41): 12898–12912. doi:10.1002/anie.201600811. PMID 27373954.
  18. Seeman, Jeffrey I.; Cantrill, Stuart (19 February 2016). "Wrong but seminal". Nature Chemistry. 8 (3): 193–200. doi:10.1038/nchem.2455. PMID 26892545.
  19. Van Noorden, Richard (24 August 2010). "Chemistry credit disputes under the spotlight". Nature News Blog. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  20. Seeman, Jeffrey I.; House, Mark C. (11 May 2010). "Influences on Authorship Issues: An Evaluation of Giving Credit". Accountability in Research. 17 (3): 146–169. doi:10.1080/08989621003791986. PMID 20461570.
  21. Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method. Science Scholarly Editions. 2011. pp. 2955–2956. ISBN 978-1464963476. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  22. Seeman, Jeffrey I.; House, Mark C. (9 July 2015). "Authorship Issues and Conflict in the U.S. Academic Chemical Community". Accountability in Research. 22 (6): 346–383. doi:10.1080/08989621.2015.1047707. PMC 4714244. PMID 26155731.
  23. Seeman, Jeffrey I. (4 December 2015). "Woodward–Hoffmann's Stereochemistry of Electrocyclic Reactions: From Day 1 to the JACS Receipt Date (May 5, 1964 to November 30, 1964)". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 80 (23): 11632–11671. doi:10.1021/acs.joc.5b01792. hdl:1813/41647. PMID 26505806.
  24. Seeman, Jeffrey I. (9 July 2015). "Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research within the Chemical Community. Ideas and Experiences Worth Sharing". Accountability in Research. 22 (6): 303–306. doi:10.1080/08989621.2015.1047704. PMC 4714240. PMID 26155727.
  25. Matthews, Michael (2013). International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. [s.l.]: Springer Verlag. pp. 331–334. ISBN 9789400776531. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  26. Arnold Thackray & Minor Myers, Jr. (2000). Arnold O. Beckman : one hundred years of excellence. foreword by James D. Watson. Philadelphia, Pa.: Chemical Heritage Foundation. ISBN 978-0-941901-23-9.
  27. "Videos of Eminent Organic Chemists". ACS Division of Organic Chemistry. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  28. "Organic Chemistry Videos". ACS Division of Organic Chemistry. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  29. "The Archimedes Initiative". University of Richmond. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  30. Wang, Linda (September 18, 2017). "Jeff Seeman presents Wheeler Lecture". Chemical & Engineering News. 95: 41. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
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