Seeman Jeffrey I
Department of Chemistry University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia 23173, United States.
ACS Omega. 2023 Feb 23;8(10):8911-8924. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07639. eCollection 2023 Mar 14.
Research in chemistry with undergraduates is commonplace today, including in many liberal arts colleges. This educational opportunity for undergraduates goes back to the late 1800s, exemplified by William Albert Noyes at Rose Polytechnic, and was honed to an almost graduate-level experience by Percy Lavon Julian at DePauw University in the early 1930s. The connection between Noyes and Julian is discussed in this report. The article traces the origins of scholarly research performed by undergraduate students by Noyes at an institution that is now called the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. This model was then replicated and substantially expanded at DePauw University by Noyes's former colleague, William Martin Blanchard. Through sheer happenstance and a series of unfortunate incidents, Julian found himself entrusted with the task of running the undergraduate chemistry research program at DePauw in 1932. Julian's exceptional ability to mentor undergraduate students and to accomplish significant advances in synthetic organic chemical methodologies was highly successful despite the challenging circumstances of racial division, limited financial resources at DePauw during the Great Depression, and job uncertainty (as Julian was being paid by "soft money"). These experiences were undoubtedly formative in shaping Julian's career as a prominent scholar, inventor, and entrepreneur, and to his eventual legacy as one of the most inspirational chemical researchers in history. Julian's mentees at DePauw would also go on to have notable careers in the chemical sciences and allied scientific and academic disciplines.
如今，本科生参与化学研究已很常见，许多文理学院都有这样的情况。本科生的这种教育机会可以追溯到19世纪末，罗斯理工学院的威廉·阿尔伯特·诺伊斯就是例证，20世纪30年代初，珀西·拉冯·朱利安在迪堡大学将其提升到了几乎相当于研究生水平的体验。本报告讨论了诺伊斯和朱利安之间的联系。本文追溯了诺伊斯在一所现称为罗斯 - 霍曼理工学院的机构开展的本科生学术研究的起源。诺伊斯的前同事威廉·马丁·布兰查德在迪堡大学复制并大幅扩展了这种模式。纯属偶然以及一系列不幸事件，朱利安在1932年发现自己受托负责迪堡大学的本科化学研究项目。尽管存在种族隔离的挑战、大萧条时期迪堡大学有限的财政资源以及工作的不确定性（朱利安领取的是“软钱”），朱利安指导本科生以及在合成有机化学方法上取得重大进展的卓越能力还是非常成功的。这些经历无疑对塑造朱利安作为杰出学者、发明家和企业家的职业生涯，以及他最终成为历史上最具启发性的化学研究人员之一的遗产起到了决定性作用。朱利安在迪堡大学的学生后来在化学科学以及相关科学和学术领域也都有显著的职业生涯。
