1993 •
Bakelite, the world's first completely synthetic
plastic, developed by
Leo Baekeland around 1907
1994 . •
Chandler Chemistry Laboratory at
Lehigh University, constructed in 1884 •
Joseph Priestley House, U.S. home of
Joseph Priestley, discoverer of
oxygen, from 1798 to 1804
1995 • Research on the
atomic weight of
oxygen conducted by
Edward Morley at
Case Western Reserve University, published in 1895 •
Nylon, the first totally synthetic
fiber used in consumer products, commercialized by
DuPont in 1939 • First U.S. facility to produce
acetyl chemicals commercially using
coal gasification technology, opened by
Eastman Chemical Company in 1983 •
Riverside Laboratory for
oil refining research, constructed by
Universal Oil Products in 1921
1996 • Williams-Miles History of Chemistry Collection at
Harding University, established in 1992 • The
Houdry process for
catalytic cracking of
crude petroleum into
gasoline, developed by
Eugene Houdry and the
Sun Oil Company in the 1930s • Kem-Tone Wall Finish, the first commercially successful water-based
paint, introduced by
Sherwin-Williams in 1941 • The Sohio process for production of
acrylonitrile, developed by
Sohio in 1957 and commercialized in 1960
1997 • First use of
radiation chemistry for commercial products by
Raychem Corporation in 1957 •
Electrolytic production of
bromine (also known as the
Dow process) by
Herbert Henry Dow in 1891 at the Evens Mill in
Midland, Michigan • The
Hall-Héroult process for production of
aluminum by
electrochemistry, discovered by American chemist
Charles Martin Hall in 1886 and independently the same year by French chemist
Paul Héroult •
Gilman Hall at the
University of California, Berkeley, built between 1916 and 1917 in
Berkeley, California 1998 • Discovery of
histamine H2-receptor antagonists and the introduction of
Tagamet by scientists at
Smith Kline and French in 1976 • Discovery of an
electric arc process for the commercial production of
calcium carbide and
acetylene, discovered by Canadian inventor
Thomas Willson in 1892 • Research and production of
synthetic rubber, developed by the United States Synthetic Rubber Program between 1939 and 1945 •
Havemeyer Hall at
Columbia University, built between 1896 and 1898 under the direction of
Charles Frederick Chandler in
New York City, New York • First commercial
fluid bed reactor for
petroleum cracking, which went on stream in 1942 at the
Baton Rouge Refinery of the
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey • The
Raman Effect, discovered by Indian physicist
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928 at the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science 1999 •
Hermann Staudinger's research on
macromolecular chemistry at the
University of Freiburg between 1926 and 1956 • Synthesis of
physostigmine by
Percy Lavon Julian at
DePauw University in 1935, which made physostigmine readily available for the treatment of
glaucoma • Work of
Antoine Lavoisier to elucidate the principles of modern chemistry in the late 1700s • Synthesis of
progesterone by
Russell Marker at
Pennsylvania State University in 1938 (a process now known as
Marker degradation), and the development of the Mexican steroid hormone industry by
Syntex S.A. in the 1940s • Separation of
rare earth elements by
Charles James at the
University of New Hampshire in the early 1900s • Discovery of
polypropylene and development of a new
high-density polyethylene by
J. Paul Hogan and
Robert Banks at
Phillips Petroleum Company in 1951 • Discovery of
penicillin by
Alexander Fleming at
St Mary's Hospital, London in 1928, and its large-scale development between 1939 and 1945 at the
USDA Northern Regional Research Laboratory,
Abbott Laboratories,
Lederle Laboratories,
Merck & Co., Inc.,
Chas. Pfizer & Co., Inc., and
E.R. Squibb & Sons 2000 •
Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection in the history of chemistry at the
University of Pennsylvania, opened in 1931 • Discovery of
helium in
natural gas by
Hamilton Cady and David Ford McFarland at the
University of Kansas in 1905 • Isolation of
organic free radicals by
Moses Gomberg at the
University of Michigan in 1900 • Discovery of new
elements beyond
Curium by researchers at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in
Berkeley,
California •
Bowood House in
Wiltshire, U.K., site of
Joseph Priestley's discovery of
oxygen in 1774 •
Nucleic acid and
protein chemistry at
Rockefeller University •
Wallace Carothers' research on
polymers at
DuPont between 1928 and 1937 • Commercialization of the
Hall-Héroult process for producing
aluminum by the
Pittsburgh Reduction Company in 1888 •
John William Draper and the founding of the
American Chemical Society in 1876 • The National Bureau of Standards (now
National Institute of Standards and Technology), founded in 1901
2002 • Invention of the
multiple-effect evaporator for processing sugar by
Norbert Rillieux in 1846 • Discovery of
Vitamin C by
Albert Szent-Györgyi between 1930 and 1936 •
Noyes Laboratory at the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, named for chemist
William A. Noyes and opened in 1902 • Development of
occupational medicine by
Alice Hamilton at
Hull House between 1897 and 1935 • Research on the quality and stability of
frozen foods conducted at the
USDA-
ARS Western Regional Research Center between 1948 and 1965
2003 • The discovery of
Camptothecin (1966) and
Taxol (1971) at the
Research Triangle Institute by
Monroe E. Wall,
Mansukh C. Wani, and colleagues • Establishment of the Polymer Research Institute (now
Polytechnic Institute of New York University) by
Herman Mark in 1946, the first academic facility in the United States devoted to the study and teaching of
polymer science • Development of high-performance
carbon fibers at
Union Carbide Corporation (now
GrafTech International) between 1958 and 1970
2004 • Development of the
Beckman pH meter by
Arnold Orville Beckman in 1935 • Research on
cotton products, including the development of
durable press and
flame retardant cotton by the
USDA-Agricultural Research Service's Southern Regional Research Center in the 1950s and 1960s • Research on
carbohydrate metabolism and establishment of the
Cori cycle in 1929 by
Carl and
Gerty Cori, at the
Washington University School of Medicine 2005 •
George Washington Carver's research in new agricultural products,
crop rotation, and
soil fertility at
Tuskegee University between 1896 and 1943 • Isolation of
antibiotics, including
streptomycin (in 1943), by
Selman Waksman at
Rutgers University Cook Campus • Columbia Dry Cell, the first sealed
dry cell battery successfully manufactured for the mass market, by the
National Carbon Company in 1896
2006 •
Neil Bartlett's demonstration of the first reaction of a
noble gas at the
University of British Columbia in 1962 • Modern
baking powder, developed by
Eben Horsford at the Rumford Chemical Works (now
Clabber Girl) in 1869 •
Tide, the first heavy-duty synthetic
laundry detergent, developed by
Procter & Gamble in 1946
2007 •
Food dehydration technology developed at the
USDA-
Agricultural Research Service-
Eastern Regional Research Center in the 1950s-1970s •
Chemical Abstracts Service, established by the
American Chemical Society in 1907 •
Scotch Tape, developed by
Richard Gurley Drew at
3M in 1930 • Chemistry at
Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest evidence of European chemical technologies in the United States, circa 1607
2008 • Production and distribution of
radioisotopes for civilian research and medical use at the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1946 • Development of deep-tank fermentation for the
mass production of
penicillin by
Pfizer in the 1940s • Development of acrylic emulsion technology for the production of
acrylic paint by
Rohm and Haas in 1953
2009 • Development of the
Pennsylvania oil industry by
Edwin Drake and
Samuel Kier in the 1850s • Deciphering of the
genetic code by
Marshall Warren Nirenberg and
J. Heinrich Matthaei at the
National Institutes of Health in the 1960s
2010 •
Diagnostic test strips, developed by
Helen Murray Free and Alfred Free at
Miles Laboratories (now
Bayer AG) in the 1950s • Discovery of
fullerenes by
Richard Smalley,
Robert Curl,
James R. Heath, Sean O'Brien, and
Harold Kroto at
Rice University in 1985
2011 • Development of the
Varian A-60
NMR Spectrometer in 1960, and the development of
MRI by
Paul Lauterbur at
Stony Brook University in the 1970s
2012 •
DayGlo fluorescent pigments, developed by
Bob Switzer and Joe Switzer of Switzer Brothers, Inc., (now Day-Glo Color Corp.) between the 1930s and 1950s •
Rachel Carson's book
Silent Spring, published in 1962
2013 • The
Mellon Institute of Industrial Research at
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, established in 1913 by
Andrew W. Mellon and
Richard B. Mellon to conduct scientific research and train industrial researchers • The R. B. Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry at
Purdue University in
West Lafayette,
Indiana, constructed between 1928 and 1955 to house the university's Department of Chemistry • Research in the area of
flavor chemistry and advances in
analytical chemistry conducted at the
USDA-
ARS Western Regional Research Center from the 1940s
2014 •
Thomas Edison's work in chemistry, including the development of
carbon filaments and the
nickel-iron battery and research into domestic sources of
rubber at the
Thomas Edison National Historical Park in
West Orange, New Jersey,
The Henry Ford in
Dearborn, Michigan, and the
Edison and Ford Winter Estates in
Fort Myers,
Florida. •
Izaak Maurits Kolthoff's role in establishing the modern discipline of
analytical chemistry at the
University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. • The research and professional contributions of
Rachel Holloway Lloyd, the first American woman to receive a
Ph.D. in
chemistry (awarded by the
University of Zurich in 1887), at the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln where she taught.
2015 • The
Keeling Curve, a record of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels initiated in 1958 by
Charles David Keeling of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the
University of California, San Diego, with samples taken at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mauna Loa Observatory in
Hilo, Hawaii. •
William Kelly's
pneumatic iron refining process, patented in 1857, at the Lyon County Public Library in
Eddyville, Kentucky, and at
Murray State University in
Murray, Kentucky. •
Edwin H. Land's invention of
instant photography (also known by the company's name,
Polaroid), at the former Polaroid Corporation Laboratory (now owned by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. • The discovery and isolation of
phytochrome, a
photoreceptive pigment in plants that controls their
germination, growth, and flowering. Phytochrome was isolated in 1959 at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Beltsville Area Research Center in
Beltsville, Maryland.
2016 •
Willard Libby's discovery of
radiocarbon dating at the
University of Chicago. •
Merck & Co.'s research on
The Vitamin B Complex • The
discovery of Ivermectin 2017 •
Infrared Spectrometer and the
Exploration of Mars •
Chlorofluorocarbons and
Ozone Depletion 2018 • Plutonium-238 Production for Space Exploration
2019 •
St. Elmo Brady, the First African-American Ph.D. in Chemistry • Steroid Medicines and Upjohn Innovation •
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Midland, Michigan ==References==