The Chemistry Department at Imperial College London

A History, 18452000

This is the first comprehensive history of the chemistry department at Imperial College London. Based on archival records, oral testimony, published papers, published and unpublished memoirs, the book tells the story of this world-famous department from its foundation as the Royal College of Chemistry in 1845 to the large department it had become by the year 2000.

The book covers research, teaching, departmental governance, students and social life. It also highlights the extraordinary contributions made to the war effort in both the first and second world wars. From its first professors, A. Wilhelm Hofmann and Edward Frankland, the department has been home to many eminent chemists, including, in the later twentieth century, the Nobel laureates Derek Barton and Geoffrey Wilkinson. New information on these and many others is presented in a lively narrative that places both people and events in the larger historical contexts of chemistry, politics, culture and the economy. The book will interest not only those connected with Imperial College, but anyone interested in chemistry and its history, or in higher

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Three Centuries of Excellence: The Story of a World-Famous Chemistry Department in the Heart of London

Contents:

• Introduction

• The Founding of the Royal College of Chemistry

• The Hofmann and Frankland Years, 1845–1865

• T E Thorpe, W A Tilden, and H E Armstrong's Department at the Central Technical College: 1885–1914

• The Department During the First World War

• The Department Between the Wars, 1918–1939

• The Department During the Second World War

• New Research and Departmental Reorganization After the Second World War, 1945–1965

• Modernization in a Changing Political, Economic, and Technological Climate: 1965–1985

• A Period of Change, 1985–2000

• Epilogue

• Appendices:

  • Liebig at Giessen; Some Early 19th Century Chemistry
  • Chemistry Teaching at British Universities Before 1850
  • IC Chemistry and the Chemical Society (Later RCC)
  • Chemistry Department staff, at IC, 1845–2000

Readership: Those connected with science at Imperial College, and anyone interested in chemistry and its history, or in higher education in the sciences.