A Brief History Of The Chemistry Department

by

Carl H. Snyder, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus

Current segment: 1968-1972 -- Another Surge and Another Chair

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1968-1972

Another Surge and Another Chair

In his first few years as Chair, Stuckwisch brought to the department four faculty he had known earlier through their association with the State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo: Both Wellman and Hare remained with the Chemistry Department until their retirement; Simplicio left for an industrial position in 1976; Clarke's combination of personal and professional characteristics led to his appointment as Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences in 1978.

Keith M. Wellman
Curtis R (Curt) Hare
George A. Clarke
Jon Simplicio

In addition to this group of faculty previously associated with SUNY, Stuckwisch also recruited two faculty
Eugene H. (Gene) Man
from other areas within the University of Miami itself. In 1962 Eugene H. Man (Ph.D. 1952, Duke University) came to the university from the Dupont Corporation to serve as Director of Research Programming. He soon acquired a variety of other responsibilities and titles in research administration, including Dean of Research Coordination. In 1968 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry; two years later he added the title Professor of Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry. He joined the department as a full-time member of the organic faculty in 1979, retiring in 1993.

Walter Drost-Hansen (Magister Scientiarum 1950, University of Copenhagen),
Walter Drost-Hansen (Drost)
the second of the two from within the university, had come to the university's Rosenstein School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in 1964. Six years later he received a joint appointment as Professor of Chemistry and soon transferred to the department as a physical chemist. He specialized in water-related research until his retirement, 1998.

Stuckwisch's success in bringing the Chemistry Department rapidly into the modern era led to his appointment as Dean of the Graduate School in 1972, followed by Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences in 1976-1977, then service as provost until his retirement in 1982. Although he retained his tenure as Professor within the department throughout these years, Clarence Stuckwisch relinquished the position of Departmental Chair with his move to graduate dean. In June, 1972, he was replaced by Harry P. Schultz.

During Stuckwisch's tenure as Chair (February, 1968 to June, 1972) the number of faculty in the department's roster grew by a net addition of four, to a total of 20. Clarke, Drost-Hansen, Hare, Man, Simplicio and Wellman joined the faculty; Powell left for another position and Steinbach retired.

In the October 1982 issue of UMCHEM, Schultz summarizes some of the transformations brought about in departmental graduate education during Stuchwisch's service as chair, 1968-1972:

In the realm of graduate education, a complete remodeling of the graduate program became effective in 1971, with core courses constituting a major thrust of the first year of graduate student study, specialization being postponed to the second and subsequent years . . . .

Into a Department with a dearth of equipment was brought at least some of the basic, large instrumental needs, such as a . . . 60 MHz H-nmr spectrometer, a . . . UV/VIS spectrometer, a . . . spectropolarimeter, and a . . . mass spectrometer, to cite the more important acquisitions

Schultz then continues to describe the difficulties faced by the department in the late 1960's and early 1070's -- due to societal unrest and a slowing economy -- through a summary of student and degree statistics during the two decades before its move from the Anastasia Building to the Cox Science Center.

Conforming to a countrywide retreat [in support for and interest in science], graduate students in the Chemistry Department sank from a high of 31 (1971) to a low of 17 (1978). So did also Departmental undergraduate students 3422 (1968-69), sink to a fall 1977 low of about 2900.

. . . . . .

During the five academic years (1967-68 through 1971-72) that the Department was chaired by C. G. Stuckwisch 342 premed BS degrees and 34 professional chemistry degrees were granted. . . . [Professional chemistry BS degrees also dropped sharply] as the nation slid into the early-seventies recession -- 1969, 10; 1970, 9; 1971, 7; 1972, 2. . . Additionally 19 MS and 11 PhD degrees were granted in the same above interval of time.

In assessing the fundamental health and vitality of research within the department, Schultz also describes its steady growth during the two decades before its 1967 move from the Anastasia Building (North Campus) to the Main Campus, a period characterized by

inadequate space and equipment for highly technical programs, insufficient funding, and bifurcation between two campuses -- the North and Main Campuses. Handicapped though the department was, its teaching and research productivity increased all through this time. With only one juried paper issued from the chemistry department in 1948, by 1957 a half-dozen papers, and by 1966 (the last full year in the old Anastasia Building) 23 papers were published by various of the chemistry faculty.

Current segment: 1968-1972 -- Another Surge and Another Chair

To return to the Chemistry Department home page, please click the atom: