After teaching for the academic year 1941–1942 at
Butler University in Indianapolis, Ihde became an instructor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison 1942–1945; he was hired as a tenure-track assistant professor in 1945. He was eventually promoted to full professor and retired as professor emeritus in 1980. His 1964 book
The Development of Modern Chemistry was a standard work in the US for several decades. For many years, beginning in 1969, he was the editor of the newsletter
Badger Chemist, as successor to Emory D. Fisher (1908–1969). In addition to his chemistry professorship, in 1957 Ihde received a formal joint appointment as professor in UW Madison's department of the history of science. Ihde published on
Paracelsus,
Robert Boyle,
Amadeo Avogadro,
Michael Faraday,
Robert Bunsen, and
Adolf von Baeyer, on the history of chemistry in the United States, and on the history of
pure food laws. ==Awards and honors==