F. Daniels 1889--1972

Farrington Daniels was born March 8, 1889, in Minneapolis. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1910 and continued to a M.S. degree in 1911. His undergraduate research was extended to a master’s thesis “An apparatus for the Determination of Vapor Pressure by the Dynamic (or Air-Bubbling) Method.” He then went to Harvard where he worked with T. W. Richards on the thermochemical and electrochemical properties of thallium amalgams. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1914 he spent four years on the faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In November he was commissioned in the Chemical Warfare Service. He worked at Clark University in Worcester, MA, on improving gas masks. Daniels joined the physical chemistry faculty at UW in 1920, doing research on nitrogen oxides and chemical kinetics and developing instruction in the physical chemistry laboratory. He was involved significantly with University governance. In 1947 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was chosen President-Elect of the American Chemical Society in 1952, President in 1953.

Daniels was involved with the early planning of a new chemistry building that was later realized in the wing at the corner of University Avenue and Mills Street. He had a strong interest in solar energy, with contributions continuing after his retirement with emphasis on low-tech methods like solar ovens in developing countries.

J. H. Mathews 1881--1970

Joseph Howard Matthews was born in Auroraville, Wisconsin, October 15, 1881 and received his pre-college education in Omro and Berlin, Wisconsin. He received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1903. After a year in a consulting chamical laboratory he returned for graduate work, receiving a M.S. in 1905 for research on electrolyte conductivity with Kahlenberg. He then went to Harvard, receiving a M.A. in 1906, After a year as an instructor at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland he returned to Harvard to work with T. W. Richards on some physical properties of chemical substances. After his Ph.D. in 1908 he became an instructor (1908–1911) and then assistant professor (1911–1917) at the University of Wisconsin. He served in the first world war, rising to the rank of Major, and his duty included investigating the problems of gas warfare. Mathews returned to the UW faculty in 1919 and later that year became Chairman of the Department of Chemistry. He held this position until his retirement in 1952. Mathews was a physical chemist, doing research on vaporization of organic compounds and on colloids. His teaching was also in physical chemistry and he developed a laboratory course that became a model. As his administrative duties grew his research shifted from physical chemistry to scientific criminology. He became an expert in ballistic identification and was instrumental in the establishment of the State Crime Laboratory. During his long tenure as chairman Mathews built the department by hiring outstanding faculty dedicated to research excellence and undergraduate teaching. The name Joseph Howard Mathews is also know to thousands of chemists as one of the founders, in 1902, of the professional chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma. In 1940, at a time when the University was almost entirely confined to the region between University Avenue and Lake Mendota, Mathews proposed construction of a chemistry building on the south side of University avenue. It was twenty years before this idea was realized. The central wing along Johnson Street is the oldest part of the present building. Originally known as the Chemistry Research Building, construction started in 1960 and it was completed in 1962.

I. Shain b. 1926

Irving Shain was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1926. He served three years in the U.S. Army during World War II, and then attended the University of Washington where he received a B. S. in chemistry in 1949. He continued to a Ph.D. in 1952 with A. L. Critenden, working on electrochemistry and joined the UW Chemistry Department in that year. He continued research in electrochemistry, and his paper with student R. S. Nicholson on cyclic voltammetry is one of the most cited in Analytical Chemistry. Shain was chair of the department from 1967 to 1970, when he became Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. In 1975 he returned to the University of Washington for two years as Vice President and Provost, then back to Madison as Chancellor from1977 to 1986. Among his major accomplishments as Chancellor was the establishment of the UW Research Park. What is now the Daniels wing was completed while he was departmental chairman, and he immediately placed the next building on the University’s long range building needs list.