Chemistry

History Project

• History Project
• Introduction
• Early Days
• Changes and Detours
• Buildings
• A Time of Growth
• USF Chemistry Anecdotes
• Appendix 1: Faculty
• Appendix 2: Chairs
• Appendix 3: USF Presidents
• Appendix 4: Faculty Books

A Time of Growth

CHEMISTRY AT USF, 1960-2004

Graduate Studies

The graduate program started in the fall of 1965, as noted in Chapter 1, and it was a program that attracted dedicated faculty and students, with intense interest on the part of the faculty. The first student to complete the masters program was Barrett Johnson, an advisee of Dr. Terence Owen's. Mr. Johnson is now an attorney in Tallahassee. He experienced, at the oral defense of his thesis, a large audience of all the graduate students and faculty and some undergraduates as well. And for many years, a goodly audience could be counted on for the masters defenses, then for the doctoral dissertation defenses.

One problem was creditability, and how to achieve it. Oversight was one approach. For the masters, this was provided by committees and by attendance at the defenses. When it came to doctoral dissertations, the University established the policy of requiring external examiners to serve as Chairs of defense committees. Thus. Professor Willard Libby served as external examiner for one doctoral dissertation. In time, the university realized that it cost significant dollars to bring in distinguished external examiners, so the custom of external examiners continued, but persons were recruited from other departments for the most part. For example, I served as a Chairman of a defense committee for two committees in Psychology, one in English, and one in Engineering. We still invite distinguished colleagues from outside the university, and presumably the custom will continue.

Table 4-1. Advanced degree graduates in Chemistry, 1964-

N. B. The masters program started in September 1965,
and the Ph.D. program started in September 1968.

Funding

Obviously, supporting a graduate program requires some degree of external funding, and the history of funding for the Department is summarized in Table 4-2, together with a comparison with the total grants and contracts for the University.

As noted earlier (Chapter 1), the research was not an encouraged activities in the early days of chemistry at USF, but the administration changed the point of view as time passed, and it became evident that there was a need to seek external funding in an organized way. The first Director of Sponsored Research was Dr. Leslie F. Malpass, who left in 1965 to become Dean of Liberal arts at Virginia Tech, then became president at Western Illinois. Dr. Malpass was Chairman of Behavioral Science in the College of Basic Studies, and was Director of Sponsored Research on a part-time basis. When he left in the summer of 1965, Dr. William H. Taft, a geologist, was appointed the first full-time Director of Sponsored Research.

The change in attitude occurred over the first three years of USF's existence, as members of the administration must have realized that research was a necessary component of a major university . Also, the Board of Control authorized development of graduate programs in 1964 (Cooper and Fisher, 1982), and seeking money became an issue.

It was certainly was not a major pre-occupation in the pre-department days, owing to administrative activities (perceived or real), but chemists did a commendable job. The first grant in chemistry was obtained by Dr. T. W. Graham Solomons, Instructor in Chemistry. He applied to the Research Corporation for a grant of $ 3340 on January 5, 1961, in a two-page proposal, and he was funded (Fig. 4-1).

Subsequently, Dr. Jesse S. Binford, Jr. came to USF in the fall of 1961 and brought with him a research grant.

Fig 4-1. Copy of a portion of Chemistry's first research proposal, submitted by Dr. Solomons in January, 1961.

Table 4-2. Summary of external funding for the Department of Chemistry , 1964-02

* Tenure-track faculty from catalogues.
** Data from Division of Sponsored Research, courtesy Ms. Rebecca Puig.

Other proposals were written and funded, of course, and one of these was an Undergraduate Research Proposal with Dr. Jack E. Fernandez as the Principal Investigator. The grant provided funds for a summer stipend for a select number of students, who were assigned to faculty members who had agreed to serve as research mentors. In 1964, for example, a group of these students presented the results of their investigations in a one-day symposium. The range and degree of sophistication of the topics is impressive.

Table 4-3 NSF Undergraduate Research Participation Program in Chemistry (August 7, 1964)*

*Abstracts of papers presented on Friday August 7, 1964; information courtesy of Dr. Michael Barfield.

Publications

Publication of research results is a tradition of long standing in academe, and this was a tradition that Charter Faculty members and those that followed managed to continue.

There are various ways of find out the number of publications produced by faculty members in a given department. Asking for a list annually is a logical approach, but the early record are not available, even assuming that this was done on a regular basis, and I personally can't remember being asked for a list on an annual basis the first few years that I was here. I was careful to maintain an accurate CV, as did many faculty members, but in truth, a list of publications for all faculty members was just prepared for 2002 (unless I am seriously mistaken) and presented on the Department web site.

An alternative approach, used here, was to consult the American Chemical Society's Directory of Graduate Research. This useful publication is a compilation of Chemistry Departments with doctoral programs. And for each department there is a list of each faculty member, the students who completed graduate theses/dissertations and the list of publications for each faculty member. This information is obtained by sending a questionnaire to each recognized department. The system is far from foolproof for it presumes a response from each department (and apparently our department managed to miss a questionnaire for a recent edition). It also presumes an enthusiasm of faculty members for correctly listing the required information. In that connection, the ACS has taken the trouble to look up the publications for each faculty member using the Chemical Abstracts Service databases. Unfortunately errors can be made, and if they are careless or don't answer the questionnaire, faculty members can get credit for publications obviously written by someone else.

This may seem like a long preamble to noting that the number of publications obtained for this section came from looking at past issues of Directory of Graduate Research in the University library and trying to be accurate and discard some extraneous publications. The list is provided in Table 4-4.

Table 4-4. Summary of faculty size and papers published as listed in the American Chemical Society Directory of Graduate Research.

The significance of this information is open to discussion. It generally shows an increase in the number of papers with time. What may be less evident is that certain persons, notably Dr. Castle and Dr. Newkome, provided a significant number of publications each year. Both had active research programs, though Dr. Newkome surely had notable administrative responsibilities and is to be commended for his energy. Dr. Castle, though beyond the traditional retirement age, had a strong research program and no teaching responsibilities. One may also note that there was a general increase in the number of masters and doctoral graduates with time, and that would surely be a factor in a number of publications as would be the change in character of the University as the tendency to attain Research I status was sought and finally achieved.

Finally, one may note the problem of total number of publications versus what was published where, and these matters have taken on increasing interest since 1999, with a greater interest in and concern for citation analysis. And a more thorough study will also include the number of times Department of Chemistry faculty papers are cited on someone else's publications .

Lecture Series

There are many ways to stimulate growth and to attract favorable attention. One method is hiring faculty with exciting cutting-edge research programs, attracting bright, hard-working, stimulating students, obtaining large amounts of state and non-state funding, and this method is certainly a significant approach.

In addition, the seminar program brings in outside speakers, and these speakers can provide stimulation and encourage development. One really effective way of simulating excitement and interest is the creation of an outstanding lectureship series, one that everyone will take advantage of, and one that will encourage interaction with external supporters. And one such exemplary program lasted 14 years (Table 4-5), as noted in the following section. When Stewart Schneller was Director of Graduate Studies, he initiated an annual lecture series for the Department of Chemistry. In 1983, the program was initiated through the sponsorship of the Research Council, followed by support of the R. P. Scherer Corporation. This program continued for four years and was followed by the Castle Lecture Series..

* note in all cases * refers to Nobel Laureate at the time of visit except Dr. Smalley who received Prize after visit.
** the R. P. Sherer 50th Anniversary Chemistry Series.
+ We are grateful to Dr. Stewart W. Schneller, who kindly provided the information in this table.

The program was very successful because of Dr. Schneller's leadership and the selection of speakers. Typically four areas of chemistry would be represented, and one lecturer would be a Nobel Laureate. The latter lecture would be coordinated with the Department Open House, typically in the fall. High school and college students would be invited to attend. The Laureate would present a technical lecture on Friday afternoon, following a luncheon, and then there would be an opportunity for all to meet the visitor at a reception typically held atop the Student Services Building. On Saturday morning, college and high school students would be invited to attend the open house. Coffee, juice and donuts would be served in the atrium of the Chemistry Building, and graduate students and faculty would participate in a poster session. Guided tours of the Chemistry facilities were coordinated with graduate students serving as tour guides. Then the Laureate would present a more general lecture in CHE 100, and this would be followed by lunch for all. High school students and their teachers would be invited to have lunch with the Laureate by themselves in a separate room. After lunch, college student visitors would be given tickets to Busch Gardens.

Fig 4-2. Dr. Stewart W. Schneller and Ms. Dyane Chapman

This program took considerable planning by Dr. Schneller, and he did it very well, presumably with the assistance of Ms. Dyane Chapman and Mrs. Schneller. Few could appreciate how much effort was involved. But one example comes to mind of a speaker who shipped his own large screen which was guaranteed to be flat so there would be no distortion in the projected slides for a three-dimensional effect.. Of course, the screen had to be acquired from Central Receiving (in its own shipping box) by Dr. Schneller, hauled over to Chemistry, manhandled down to the basement of CHE 100, hidden away until the proper time, and installed by Physical Plant personnel. And, of course, the entire process had to be reversed after the speaker left.

This series was a powerful recruiting tool, and it was a powerful tool for establishing USF Chemistry Department in the eyes of those outside Florida. Nobel Laureates who came included Herbert C. Brown (Purdue University), Melvin Calvin (University of California-Berkeley), and William Lipscomb(Harvard). All gave impressive presentations.

And so did the other lecturers in this series (and the subsequent series), who may not have been Nobel Laureates, but were superb chemists. Professor Harry Gray, Cal Tech, participated in the program, gave an inspiring lecture, and was a delightful guest. So was Professor Fred Basolo (Northwestern University), former President of the American Chemical Society, who gave an impressive lecture to a class of general chemistry. Other inorganic chemists included Professor Al Cotton ((Texas A& M) and an ACS presidential candidate at the time, and Professor Frederick Hawthorne (UCLA), Editor of Inorganic Chemistry.

Unfortunately, the fine tradition, and the considerable momentum that had been established by the program was in danger of being lost when the grant from R. P. Scherer expired.

Fortunately, Dr. Schneller was able to convince Dr and Mrs. Raymond N. Castle to continue the lecture series at full scale. Through their generosity, the series continued starting in 1987 until Dr. Castle retired in 1994. When interviewed about their decision to support the series after the grant from R. P. Scherer expired, Professor Castle was quoted as saying, " This is an important program for the Chemistry Department. It already has a strong following, and we would lose valuable momentum if the series was to be interrupted" (CNS, 1987).

Dr. Castle added," The visibility and recognition the University receives is important. Furthermore, it gives our students the chance to listen to and be stimulated by the world's outstanding chemists" (CNS, 1987) .

Fig 4-3. Mrs. Ada Castle and Dr. Raymond Castle

Raymond Castle had joined the USF Chemistry faculty in 1981 as a Graduate Research Professor. He was born June 24, 1916 in Boise, Idaho and as graduated from the University of Idaho, Southern Branch, Pocatello in 1938 with a degree in pharmacy. He then completed the M.A. degree requirements in Chemistry at the University of Colorado (1941), and following a stint as a Chemistry instructor at the University of Idaho, he returned and earned a Ph.D. (1944) at the University of Colorado. He came to USF following two years as a research Chemist at Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio), as a faculty member for 24 years at the University of New Mexico, and 11 years at Brigham Young University.

He and his wife, Ada, were a treasured part of the Department of Chemistry where he did research and where they together were responsible for the publication of the Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry, which he had founded in 1964, and continued to serve as editor.

He was well regarded as a speaker and gave lectures around the world. He was a much honored chemist, including the International Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry (1983), presented in Tokyo, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field. He once said, "I'm not going to retire, I'm going to drop." He had just retuned from an International Congress on Heterocyclic Chemistry and was planning his work for the next day when he died quietly at home in the summer of 1999.

The Department of Chemistry Annual Raymond Castle Undergraduate Research Conference was initiated in his memory in 2001.

Martin Seminar Series

When Raymond Castle retired in 1994, the Castle lecture series was terminated, and was replaced in a limited way by the Barbara and Dean Martin Seminar Series. These lectures, too, were designed to provide an opportunity for a diverse group of outstanding persons(Table 4-6). At the outset, a guarantee of funding for five years was promised, but the program was successful and continued beyond the five-year program.

Open Houses

In addition to the Chemistry Open Houses, Dean Leon Mandell arranged for College of Natural Science Open House ("Discovery '86") with the support of a local attorney, Lucius M. Dyal (Chairman of the College of Natural Sciences Development Committee). Guests were housed in Embassy Suites (Thursday, November 6), then brought to the campus where a general presentation was made at the top floor of the Student Services Building, followed by dinner for guests and selected faculty. The head of Marine Science, Dr. Peter Betzer, and members of Marine Science made an hour-long presentation.

The next day, guests were brought to campus after breakfast for presentations by teams from Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics .

The program for Chemistry consisted of 20-minute presentations to four different groups over the course of the day. The Chemistry participants and topics is given in Table 4-5.

At 5:00 pm, a wine and cheese reception was held in the old Pious Museum on the second floor, and then shuttles were arranged to return guests to the Embassy Suites (Table 4-7).

Undergraduate Banquet

Dr. Schneller managed to get a member of the Green Jacket Club, Mr. Dick Wittcoff, whom he met at a gathering of the supporters of Intercollegiate Athletics, to support an undergraduate honors banquet. Mr. Wittcoff and his wife, Mrs. Roz Wittcoff, supported the Awards Banquet for several years. The organization has remained remarkably constant: outstanding undergraduates are formally recognized at a reception and dinner in April. Funding allowed for honorees and their parents or guests to be invited as banquet guests. Each student is invited to attend and to bring his/her parents or a friend and a guest of the Department (My favorite student was an handsome man, who couldn't decide which of three women to invite and wanted two extra tickets). Outstanding students in individual courses (general chemistry, analytical, organic, physical) receive special recognition. Special books were solicited from companies (Merck and Company, Plenum Press, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. provided books for the first banquet). And an outstanding alumnus/alumna is recognized and invited to speak.

The first banquet was held in April 18, 1988. Dr. Karl Olander, Director of PPG Industries Barberton Technical Center, was honored. Karl was one of our early masters graduates. Then he went to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where his advisor was Dr. T. L. Brown. Subsequently, he had a very successful as a bench chemist, then administrator in chemical industry

A copy of a portion of the first program is presented (Fig. 4-4) to indicate the scope of the awards.

Fig 4-4. Inside right page of first undergraduate banquet program

The program (inside left page) also lists the students who made the Chemistry Honor Roll, based on their GPA for the previous year. They were recognized individually, and were given a certificate of appreciation.

As a matter of personal interest, I noted that one name on the list appears later: Timothy Postlethwaite, a student in one of my classes, made the Honor Roll in 1988. He later earned a Ph.D. and returned to the Tampa Bay area. And in 2000, he was named an Outstanding Chemistry Alumnus and returned to the April 2000 banquet to receive the Award and to address those present.

Certain students were remembered in another way. Recipients of the Outstanding B.A. and B.S. Major awards have been listed annually on a plaque that is presently housed on the north corridor of the fourth floor of the Science Center. These names are now also listed on the Department web site (see "Awards").

By custom, each award was presented by a given member of the Chemistry Faculty, who would provide a brief background about the award, its significance and say a few words about the recipient, then introduce the next faculty member.

Progress

Several characteristics might be used as a measure of progress of a program. These could include the number of graduates (Table 4-?), the amount of funding (Table 4-?), the number of publications in refereed journals (Table 4-?), the books that the faculty have written (Appendix?).

But in the ultimate analysis, the most important criterion might be the end product --- the alumni, what they did after they left USF. Unfortunately, it is not possible to recognize everyone. We initiated a tracking project that tries to keep track of the masters and doctoral graduates (chemistry.usf.edu); covered under graduate program.

There are many students that we may be justly proud of. One recent example was Dr. Joanna Fowler (B.S., 1964). She and her husband were recipients of outstanding Chemistry Alumni Awards (see "Awards"; See also table 4-8?). In May, 2003, Dr. Fowler was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the first USF Chemistry graduate to be elected.

Another measure of success is the graduates who followed in faculty footsteps and entered academe. The ones we know about are listed in Table 4-8. (Obviously, we shall appreciate receiving additional examples and/or corrections).

Other alumni have chosen to go into industry where they have been successful.

Over 30 chemistry alumni have accepted industrial positions. The current listing may be found on the Department web page (Chemistry 2003). A few examples can indicate the breadth of involvement.

• Pat Benz (Ph.D., '76 ) founded his own firm, Benz Industries, of which he is president and CEO. The firm produces most of the special monomer DHPMA used in a certain contact lens. Jose Ors (Ph.D., 74) is a member of the firm.
• Fred Clough (Ph.D.'76) was co-owner of Trinity Software after a few years in academe.
• William Glauser (Ph.D.'87) became Director of Sales and Marketing for Schrödinger, Inc.
• Ellen Leahy (Ph.D., '90) is Senior Scientist at Axys Pharmaceuticals, Ind. South San Francisco
• James W. Leahy (Ph.D., '90) is Director of Chemistry, Exelixsis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the same city.
• David McKeithan (Ph.D.'90) was Technical Director, Florida Flavors, Lakeland.
• Denise Manker received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and earned her doctorate at University of California-San Diego-Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A natural products chemist she is Director of Research and New Business at AgraQuest, Davis, CA and was featured on a cover of C&EN (Ritter, 2003)
• James Spence (Ph.D.'75) was owner and President, Lubricant Additives Research, Clinton, OH.
• Chuhua Wang (Ph.D., 97) is Senior Analytical Chemist, Technic, Inc., Providence, RI.

Expansion and Administrative Changes

The expansion of the Department programs was dependent upon administration support, which, in turn, was dependent upon external support.. And there were ups and downs.

After the start of the masters program, the Department faculty noted the need for a doctoral program to enable persons in the area who wished to pursue a doctorate in chemistry to obtain one without the need to commute to Gainesville. It was a good and cogent argument, and was coupled with the suggestion that the program could be undertaken without additional funding. In 1968, we were granted permission to offer the program, and two interesting things appeared. First, the program had some, but not a notable outreach, to non-traditional students. (The person in charge of seminar, for example insisted that all students attend the 4 pm seminar, even though this was not convenient for a part-time graduate student working in, say, Sarasota. Later Distance Learning programs and other programs made it possible to help non-traditional students.) Second, we realized that a good doctoral program would require additional funding.

In the late 1960s, we had applied with the active encouragement of Dr. Ashford (Associate Dean for Natural Sciences) to the National Science Foundation for support for the program, and a review team visited that included Dr. William Davidson professor of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts. We were in competition with a similarly young institution in southern state, and a key point in the team's assessment was the likelihood of continuing state support. I was later told that Dr. Allen was not as optimistic as the team would have wished but that the president of the other institution was, and they got the grant. Subsequent events proved that their president was overly optimistic, and that Dr. Allen had been right. This was not a great consolation at the time, as I recall. Subsequently, however, in the late 1960s, some funds for equipment were obtained, and this proved to be a useful investment.

In 1970-71, additional faculty members being added proved a strain on the budget, and a degree of faculty unrest set in (or so I was told; I was on leave at Duke Medical Center). Some felt that pay raises were not being distributed in an equitable manner, and in the subsequent administration, several changes occurred.

First, the College of Liberal Arts was broken up by division, and four colleges were created. Three of the four division heads were retained as deans, including Dr. Ashford. This was, I thought, a positive move, and gave emphasis to the sciences that could have been diluted previously.

Second, Dr. Riggs, Vice President for Academic Affairs, with Dr. Mackey's approval, mandated that there would be elected departmental advisory committees. The Chairman's Advisory Council in Chemistry, had representatives elected by divisions (analytical, biochemistry, etc), plus two at-large representatives. The Council advised the Chair, performed annual reviews of each faculty member, and annually provided general recommendations for pay raises based on prior performance. The expansion into additional space (Chapter 3) was timely and necessary.

Another change occurred when Dr. Ashford retired and his place was taken by Dean James D. Ray in about 1974. He seemed an eminently reasonable person and as a biologist, he seemed sympathetic to interdisciplinary research.

He may have been a more relaxed person than Dr., Ashford. Early in his administration, he appointed a building committee, that worked hard to get the details of a new building (later to be the BSF building built in Dean Mandell's administration) in place. As it happened, working out the details, even with a consultant, took time, and in the meanwhile, Business Administration managed to come up with preliminary plans and got the available money before we did. All buildings are complicated, but I think science buildings are more complicated to design than business administration buildings are. Dean Ray later indicated that the delay might have been a blessing because the rules to justify space became more demanding. As I looked at my copy of the proposed building document, I thought the "blessing" was surely well disguised. We needed the space.

A chemist, Dr. Leon Mandell, who had been instrumental in building the Department of Chemistry at Emory University, in turn, replaced Dean Ray. He had also been the moving force behind their obtaining a new building and attracting some outstanding chemists and graduate students to fill it. Dean Mandell believed that one sure method for appropriate expansion of programs was to obtain external funding, and he worked at it and expected others to do it as well. The open houses were one approach. On the other hand, there was a certain mixed blessing in having the department watched over by an outstanding chemist, who was used to a more advanced graduate program.

Matters could have progressed well, but the State University System Chancellor, Dr. Charles Reed, was determined that USF would have a liberal arts college to match the organizational system at the University of Florida and Florida State (and perhaps other state institutions as well). At the time, an informal survey taken at a Faculty Senate meeting by Chancellor reed revealed that the percentage of the those present in favor of the change was low, which he duly noted. But the change was mandated, anyway. Ultimately, it was ruled that no sitting dean would be eligible to be considered for dean of the new college. And only three existing colleges were merged into what became of the College of Arts and Sciences .

Some believed that change was good; others believed that the change retarded the momentum of departmental progress. In due course, Dr. Rollin Richmond, a biologist from Indiana University was named dean. He was termed the "Dean From Heaven" by colleagues in the humanities, but some of felt he was trying not to be accused of favoring the sciences. He subsequently left to become provost of SUNY-Stony Brook, and was replaced by Dr. David Stamps, then by Dr. Renu Khatur.

The first 30-35 years of the Department as a Department were years of progress, but additional changes were in the offing, as we experienced the retirement of valued colleagues and the departure of others. In a relatively short period of time, the faculty went from about 30 to about 20. And it was a time for a major change, as will be considered in Chapter 5.

Acknowledgment

I am grateful to Dr.Stewart W. Schneller, Dean, College of Science and Mathematics, Auburn University, for providing helpful information in Table 4-5.

Literature Cited

• Anonymous. 1986. Discovery '86. Program College of Natural Sciences, USF.
• Chemistry 2003: http://www.cas.usf.edu/chemistry (check under Graduate Studies)
• Cooper, R. M. and M. B. Fisher. 1982. The Vision of a Contemporary University. University Presses of Florida, Tampa, FL.
• CNS. 1987. CNS Developments, College of Natural Sciences, USF, II (I): 13.
• Ritter, S. T. 2003. Green Rewards.Chem. Engn. News81(26): 30-35.