James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
, a transformative
President of Harvard University, and the first
U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a
Ph.D. in
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
from Harvard in 1916.
During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, he served in the
U.S. Army, where he worked on the development of
poison gases, especially
lewisite
Lewisite (L) (A-243) is an organoarsenic compound. It was once manufactured in the United States, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union for use as a Chemical warfare, chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. Although ...
. He became an assistant professor of chemistry at Harvard University in 1919 and the Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1929. He researched the physical structures of
natural product
A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical s ...
s, particularly
chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words (, "pale green") and (, "leaf"). Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy ...
, and he was one of the first to explore the sometimes complex relationship between
chemical equilibrium
In a chemical reaction, chemical equilibrium is the state in which both the Reagent, reactants and Product (chemistry), products are present in concentrations which have no further tendency to change with time, so that there is no observable chan ...
and the
reaction rate
The reaction rate or rate of reaction is the speed at which a chemical reaction takes place, defined as proportional to the increase in the concentration of a product per unit time and to the decrease in the concentration of a reactant per u ...
of chemical processes. He studied the
biochemistry
Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...
of
oxyhemoglobin
Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglob ...
providing insight into the disease
methemoglobinemia
Methemoglobinemia, or methaemoglobinaemia, is a condition of elevated methemoglobin in the blood. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, poor muscle coordination, and blue-colored skin (cyanosis). Complications ma ...
, helped to explain the structure of
chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words (, "pale green") and (, "leaf"). Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy ...
, and contributed important insights that underlie modern theories of
acid-base chemistry.
In 1933, Conant became the president of Harvard University with a reformist agenda that included dispensing with a number of customs, including class rankings and the requirement for Latin classes. He abolished
athletic scholarships, and instituted an "
up or out
Up or out, also known as a tenure or partnership system, is the requirement for members of a hierarchical organization to achieve a certain rank within a certain period of time. If they fail to do so, they must leave the organization.
Examples ...
" policy, under which untenured faculty who were not promoted were terminated. His egalitarian vision of education required a diversified student body, and he promoted the adoption of the
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and co-educational classes. During his presidency, women were admitted to
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
and
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
for the first time.
Conant was appointed to the
National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) in 1940, becoming its chairman in 1941. In this capacity, he oversaw vital wartime research projects, including the development of synthetic rubber and the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
, which developed the first
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...
s. On July 16, 1945, he was among the dignitaries present at the
Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range for the
Trinity nuclear test, the first detonation of an atomic bomb, and was part of the
Interim Committee that advised President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
to use atomic bombs on Japan. After the war, he served on the Joint Research and Development Board (JRDC) that was established to coordinate burgeoning defense research, and on the influential General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC); in the latter capacity he advised the president against starting a development program for the
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
.
In his later years at Harvard, Conant taught undergraduate courses on the
history and philosophy of science, and wrote books explaining the
scientific method
The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...
to laymen. In 1953, he retired as president of Harvard University and became the
United States High Commissioner for Germany, overseeing the restoration of German sovereignty after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and then was Ambassador to West Germany until 1957.
On returning to the United States, Conant criticized the education system in ''
The American High School Today'' (1959), ''Slums and Suburbs'' (1961), and ''The Education of American Teachers'' (1963). Between 1965 and 1969, Conant authored his autobiography, ''My Several Lives'' (1970). He became increasingly infirm, had a series of
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
s in 1977, and died in a nursing home in
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a New England town, town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university ...
, the following year.
Early life and education
Conant was born in
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ...
, on March 26, 1893, the third child and only son of James Scott Conant, a
photoengraver, and his wife Jennett Orr (née Bryant). In 1904, Conant was one of 35 boys who passed the competitive admission exam for the
Roxbury Latin School in
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the village of Chestnut Hill and the town of Brookline to the north, the city of Newton to the northwest, t ...
, and he graduated near the top of his class from the school in 1910.
Encouraged by his science teacher, Newton H. Black, in September of that year he entered
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
, where he studied
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...
under
Theodore W. Richards and
organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...
under
Elmer P. Kohler. He was also an editor of ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students.
His ...
''. He joined the
Signet Society and
Delta Upsilon, and was initiated as a brother of the Omicron chapter of
Alpha Chi Sigma in 1912.
He graduated
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
with his
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in June 1913. He then went to work on his doctorate, which was an unusual double dissertation. The first part, supervised by Richards, concerned "The Electrochemical Behavior of Liquid Sodium Amalgams"; the second, supervised by Kohler, was "A Study of Certain
Cyclopropane
Cyclopropane is the cycloalkane with the molecular formula (CH2)3, consisting of three methylene groups (CH2) linked to each other to form a triangular ring. The small size of the ring creates substantial ring strain in the structure. Cyclopropane ...
Derivatives". Harvard awarded Conant his
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
degree in 1916.
Career
In 1915, Conant entered into a business partnership with two other Harvard chemistry graduates,
Stanley Pennock and Chauncey Loomis, to form the LPC Laboratories. They opened a plant in a one-story building in
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, New York City, where they manufactured chemicals used by the pharmaceutical industry like
benzoic acid
Benzoic acid () is a white (or colorless) solid organic compound with the formula , whose structure consists of a benzene ring () with a carboxyl () substituent. The benzoyl group is often abbreviated "Bz" (not to be confused with "Bn," which ...
that were selling at high prices on account of the interruption of imports from Germany due to
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In 1916, the departure of organic chemist
Roger Adams created a vacancy at Harvard that was offered to Conant. Since he aspired to an academic career, Conant accepted the offer and returned to Harvard. On November 27, 1916, an explosion killed Pennock and two others and completely destroyed a subsequent and newly opened plant in Newark, New Jersey. A contributing cause was Conant's faulty test procedures.
U.S. Army
Following the
United States declaration of war on Germany that launched U.S. involvement in
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Conant was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the
U.S. Army Sanitary Corps on September 22, 1917. He went to the
Camp American University, where he worked on the development of
poison gas
Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal concentration) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious ...
es. Initially, his work concentrated on
mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur compound, organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other Chemical species, species. In the wi ...
, but in May 1918, Conant took charge of a unit concerned with the development of
lewisite
Lewisite (L) (A-243) is an organoarsenic compound. It was once manufactured in the United States, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union for use as a Chemical warfare, chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. Although ...
. He was promoted to
major
Major most commonly refers to:
* Major (rank), a military rank
* Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits
* People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames
* Major and minor in musi ...
on July 20, 1918. A pilot plant was built, and then a full-scale production plant in
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, but the war ended before lewisite could be used in battle.
Harvard University professor
Conant was appointed an assistant professor of chemistry at Harvard in 1919. The following year he became engaged to Richards's daughter, Grace (Patty) Thayer Richards. They were married in the
Appleton Chapel at Harvard on April 17, 1920, and had two sons, James Richards Conant, born in May 1923, and Theodore Richards Conant, born in July 1928.
Conant became an associate professor in 1924.
In 1925, he visited Germany, then the heart of chemical research, for eight months. He toured the major universities and laboratories there and met many of the leading chemists, including
Theodor Curtius,
Kazimierz Fajans,
Hans Fischer,
Arthur Hantzsch,
Hans Meerwein,
Jakob Meisenheimer,
Hermann Staudinger
Hermann Staudinger (; 23 March 1881 – 8 September 1965) was a German organic chemist who demonstrated the existence of macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. For this work he received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
He is also ...
,
Adolf Windaus and
Karl Ziegler. After Conant returned to the United States,
Arthur Amos Noyes made him an attractive offer to move to
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
. The president of Harvard,
Abbott Lawrence Lowell
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (December 13, 1856 – January 6, 1943) was an American educator and legal scholar. He was president of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933.
With an "aristocratic sense of mission and self-certainty," Lowell cut a large ...
, made a counter offer: immediate promotion to professor, effective September 1, 1927, with a salary of $7,000 (roughly equivalent to as of ) and a grant of $9,000 per annum for research. Conant accepted and stayed at Harvard. In 1929, he became the Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry, and then, in 1931, the chairman of the chemistry department.
Between 1928 and 1933, Conant published 55 papers. Much of his research, like his double thesis, combined
natural product
A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical s ...
chemistry with
physical organic chemistry
Physical organic chemistry, a term coined by Louis Hammett in 1940, refers to a discipline of organic chemistry that focuses on the relationship between chemical structures and chemical reaction, reactivity, in particular, applying experimental to ...
. Based on his exploration of
reaction rate
The reaction rate or rate of reaction is the speed at which a chemical reaction takes place, defined as proportional to the increase in the concentration of a product per unit time and to the decrease in the concentration of a reactant per u ...
s in
chemical equilibria, Conant was one of the first to recognise that the
kinetics of these systems is sometimes straightforward and simple, yet quite complex in other cases. Conant studied the effect of
haloalkane structure on the rate of
substitution with inorganic
iodide salts
In chemistry, a salt or ionic compound is a chemical compound consisting of an assembly of positively charged ions ( cations) and negatively charged ions (anions), which results in a compound with no net electric charge (electrically neutral). ...
which, together with earlier work, led to what is now known as either the Conant-Finkelstein reaction or more commonly simply the
Finkelstein reaction. A recent application of this reaction involved the preparation of an iodinated
polyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride (alternatively: poly(vinyl chloride), colloquial: vinyl or polyvinyl; abbreviated: PVC) is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic (after polyethylene and polypropylene). About 40 million tons of ...
from regular PVC. A combination of Conant's work on the kinetics of
hydrogenation
Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to redox, reduce or Saturated ...
and
George Kistiakowsky's work on the
enthalpy changes of these reactions supported the later development of the theory of
hyperconjugation.
Conant's investigations helped in the development of a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of acids and bases. He investigated the properties of certain
acid
An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
s which were many times
stronger than
mineral acid
A mineral acid (or inorganic acid) is an acid derived from one or more inorganic compounds, as opposed to organic acids which are acidic, organic compounds. All mineral acids form hydrogen ions and the conjugate base when dissolved in water.
Ch ...
solutions in water. Conant christened them "
superacid
In chemistry, a superacid (according to the original definition) is an acid with an acidity greater than that of 100% pure sulfuric acid (), which has a Hammett acidity function (''H''0) of −12. According to the modern definition, a superacid i ...
s" and laid the foundation for the development of the
Hammett acidity function. These investigations used
acetic acid
Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main compone ...
as the
solvent
A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...
and demonstrated that
sodium acetate
Sodium acetate, CH3COONa, also abbreviated Sodium, NaOxygen, OAcetyl, Ac, is the sodium Salt (chemistry), salt of acetic acid. This salt is colorless, deliquescent, and hygroscopy, hygroscopic.
Applications
Biotechnological
Sodium acetate is u ...
behaves as a
base under these conditions. This observation is consistent with
Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory
The Brønsted–Lowry theory (also called proton theory of acids and bases) is an acid–base reaction theory which was developed independently in 1923 by physical chemists Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (in Denmark) and Thomas Martin Lowry (in ...
published in 1923, but cannot be explained under older
Arrhenius theory approaches. Later work with George Wheland and extended by William Kirk McEwen looked at the properties of
hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...
s as very weak acids, including
acetophenone,
phenylacetylene,
fluorene and
diphenylmethane. Conant can be considered alongside
Brønsted,
Lowry,
Lewis, and
Hammett as a developer of modern understanding of acids and bases.
Between 1929 and his retirement from chemical research in 1933, Conant published papers in ''
Science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'', ''
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'', and the ''
Journal of the American Chemical Society
The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' (also known as JACS) is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ...
'' about
chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words (, "pale green") and (, "leaf"). Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy ...
and its structure. Though the complete structure eluded him, his work did support and contribute to
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
Hans Fischer's ultimate determination of the structure in 1939. Conant's work on chlorophyll was recognised when he was inducted as a foreign
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
on May 2, 1941. He also published three papers describing the
polymerisation of
isoprene
Isoprene, or 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is a common volatile organic compound with the formula CH2=C(CH3)−CH=CH2. In its pure form it is a colorless volatile liquid. It is produced by many plants and animals (including humans) and its polymers ar ...
to prepare
synthetic rubber
A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About of rubber is produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubber, just like natural ru ...
.
Another line of research involved the
biochemistry
Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...
of the
hemoglobin-oxyhemoglobin system. Conant ran a series of experiments with
electrochemical
Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve electrons moving via an electronically conducting phase (typi ...
oxidation and reduction, following in the footsteps of the famous German chemist and Nobel laureate
Fritz Haber
Fritz Jakob Haber (; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrog ...
. He determined that the
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
centre in
methemoglobin
Methemoglobin (British: methaemoglobin, shortened MetHb) (pronounced "met-hemoglobin") is a hemoglobin ''in the form of metalloprotein'', in which the iron in the heme group is in the Fe3+ (ferric) state, not the Fe2+ (ferrous) of normal hemoglobin ...
is a
ferric
In chemistry, iron(III) or ''ferric'' refers to the chemical element, element iron in its +3 oxidation number, oxidation state. ''Ferric chloride'' is an alternative name for iron(III) chloride (). The adjective ''ferrous'' is used instead for i ...
(Fe
III) centre, unlike the
ferrous
In chemistry, iron(II) refers to the chemical element, element iron in its +2 oxidation number, oxidation state. The adjective ''ferrous'' or the prefix ''ferro-'' is often used to specify such compounds, as in ''ferrous chloride'' for iron(II ...
(Fe
II) centre found in normal hemoglobin, and this difference in
oxidation state
In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical Electrical charge, charge of an atom if all of its Chemical bond, bonds to other atoms are fully Ionic bond, ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons ...
is the cause of
methemoglobinemia
Methemoglobinemia, or methaemoglobinaemia, is a condition of elevated methemoglobin in the blood. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, poor muscle coordination, and blue-colored skin (cyanosis). Complications ma ...
, a medical condition which causes
tissue hypoxia.
Conant wrote a chemistry textbook with his former science teacher Black, entitled ''Practical Chemistry'', which was published in 1920, with a revised edition in 1929. This was superseded in 1937 by their ''New Practical Chemistry'', which in turn had a revised edition in 1946. The text proved a popular one; it was adopted by 75 universities, and Conant received thousands of dollars in
royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...
. For his accomplishments in chemistry, he was awarded the
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
's Nichols Medal in 1932,
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's Chandler Medal in 1932, and the American Chemical Society's highest honor, the
Priestley Medal, in 1944. He also received the society's
Charles Lathrop Parsons Award in 1955, for public service. He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1924,
a Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1929,
and a Member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1935. Notable students of Conant's included
Paul Doughty Bartlett, George Wheland, and
Frank Westheimer. In 1932 he was also honored by membership of the
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...
.
Harvard University president
After some months of lobbying and discussion, Harvard's ruling body, the
Harvard Corporation, announced on May 8, 1933, that it had elected Conant as the next President of Harvard.
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He created the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which has been applied in a wide variety of disciplines, inclu ...
, Harvard's eminent professor of philosophy disagreed with the decision, declaring, "The Corporation should not have elected a chemist to the Presidency." "But," Corporation member
Grenville Clark reminded him, "
Eliot was a chemist, and our best president too." "I know," replied Whitehead, "but Eliot was a ''bad'' chemist." Clark was very much responsible for Conant's election.
On October 9, 1933, Conant became the
President of Harvard University with a low-key installation ceremony in the Faculty Room of
University Hall.
This set the tone for Conant's presidency as one of informality and reform. At his inauguration, he accepted the charter and seal presented to
John Leverett the Younger in 1707, but dropped a number of other customs, including the singing of ''
Gloria Patri'' and the Latin Oration. While, unlike some other universities, Harvard did not require Greek or Latin for entrance, they were worth double credits towards admission, and students like Conant who had studied Latin were awarded an
A.B. degree while those who had not, received an
S.B. One of his first efforts at reform was to attempt to abolish this distinction. But in 1937 he wrote:
As a first step to improving the faculty, Conant established a mandatory retirement age of sixty-six, with exceptional faculty members able to remain until age seventy-six. The latter affected two of the university's most eminent scholars,
Frank Taussig and
George Kittredge, who were persuaded to retire voluntarily rather than under the new rule. His longest and most bitter battle was over
tenure
Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
reform, shifting to an "
up or out
Up or out, also known as a tenure or partnership system, is the requirement for members of a hierarchical organization to achieve a certain rank within a certain period of time. If they fail to do so, they must leave the organization.
Examples ...
" policy, under which scholars who were not promoted were terminated. A small number of extra-departmental positions was set aside for outstanding scholars. This policy led junior faculty to revolt, and nearly resulted in Conant's dismissal in 1938. Conant was fond of saying: "Behold the turtle. It makes progress only when it sticks its neck out."

Other reforms included the abolition of class rankings and
athletic scholarships. Conant added new graduate degrees in education, history of science and public policy, and he introduced the
Nieman Fellowship
The Nieman Fellowship is a fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. It awards multiple types of fellowships.
Nieman Fellowships for journalists
The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman ...
for journalists to study at Harvard, the first of which was awarded in 1939. He supported the "meatballs", as
lower class students were called. He instituted the Harvard national scholarships for underprivileged students.
Dudley House was opened to provide non-resident students with increased opportunities for socialization (opportunities provided to resident undergraduates by the
twelve Harvard College residential houses).
Conant asked two of his assistant deans,
Henry Chauncey and William Bender, to determine whether the
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was a good measure of academic potential. When they reported that it was, Conant adopted it. He waged a ten-year campaign for the consolidation of testing services, which resulted in the creation of the
Educational Testing Service
Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a P ...
in 1946, with Chauncey as its director.
Theodore H. White, a Boston Jewish "meatball" who received a personal letter of introduction from Conant so that he could report on the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
, noted that "Conant was the first president to recognize that meatballs were Harvard men too."
Lowell, Conant's predecessor, had imposed a 15 percent quota on Jewish students in 1922, something Conant had voted to support.
This quota was replaced with geographic distribution preferences, which had the same effect of limiting Jewish admission. Conant's cool response to the plight of the Jewish academic refugees from Hitler suggests that he shared the
anti-semitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
common to his social group and time. When
DuPont
Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to:
People
* Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
asked him for an appraisal of the German chemist
Max Bergmann, Conant wrote back that Bergmann was "definitely of the Jewish type—rather heavy" with "none of the earmarks of genius". Harvard awarded honorary degrees to two notable displaced scholars,
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
and
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
, in 1935, but Conant declined to participate in the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars. His vision of building Harvard's faculty involved hiring promising American scholars rather than helping refugees. The two most prominent refugee scholars at Harvard,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...
and Robert Ulich, were not Jewish. Writing in 1979, historian
William M. Tuttle Jr. concluded that "Conant's position reflected not only a failure of foresight, but also a failure of compassion and political sensitivity", but added that "Conant was one of the more outspoken anti-Nazis in the United States from 1933 to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939.
Stephen H. Norwood, writing in 2004, observed that "This, however, was hardly the case." Norwood noted that while Conant was not an apologist for the Nazi regime, he repeatedly failed to speak out.
In 1934, Harvard-educated German businessman
Ernst Hanfstaengl attended the 25th anniversary reunion of his class of 1909, and gave a number of speeches. In his inaugural
commencement address in 1934, Conant spoke out against the Nazi threat to
academic freedom
Academic freedom is the right of a teacher to instruct and the right of a student to learn in an academic setting unhampered by outside interference. It may also include the right of academics to engage in social and political criticism.
Academic ...
in Germany. His speech was interrupted by two female students who had chained themselves to the stands near the speaker's platform and chanted "Down with Hitler!" and "Down with Hanfstaengl!" Hanfstaengl wrote out a check for () to Conant for a scholarship to enable an outstanding Harvard student to study for a year in Germany. At the next meeting of the Corporation in October, Conant persuaded it to reject the offer due to Hanfstaengl's Nazi associations. When the issue of Hanfstaengl's scholarship came up again in 1936, Conant turned the money down a second time. Hanfstaengl's presence on campus prompted a series of anti-Nazi demonstrations, in which a number of Harvard and
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
students were arrested. Conant made a personal plea for clemency that resulted in two women being acquitted, but six men and a woman were sentenced to six months in jail. They were later pardoned by the
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...
,
Joseph B. Ely.
When the
University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
awarded an
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
in 1934 to American legal scholar and Dean of Harvard Law School
Roscoe Pound
Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 28, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and was dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a ...
, who had toured Germany earlier that year and made no secret of his admiration for the Nazi regime, Conant refused to order Pound not to accept it, and attended the informal award ceremony at Harvard where Pound was presented with the degree by
Hans Luther, the German ambassador to the United States.
What Conant feared most was disruption to Harvard's tercentennial celebrations in 1936, but there was no trouble despite the presence of
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
, the
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, and a Harvard graduate of the class of 1904, whom many fellow Harvard graduates regarded as a
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
and a
class traitor. Privately, Conant approved of the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
and expressed admiration for Roosevelt's goals. He invited Roosevelt to speak at the tercentennial celebrations. This did not sit well with Lowell, and it was only with difficulty that Lowell was persuaded to be presiding officer at an event at which Roosevelt spoke. The parallels between Roosevelt's New Deal and Conant's advocacy of meritocracy and of education as a means of social mobility did not escape notice. Conant recognized that education in America contributed to social stratification rather than breaking it down, and that educational opportunity needed to be extended to areas where it was deficient, such as rural areas, small towns and inner cities. He advocated for federal interventions, since these areas were often poor and lacking in the funds needed to improve education, and that they were economically and socially stratified with political and taxation structures that reinforced social stratification.
Conant sought to enhance the
liberal education
A liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free () human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment. It has been d ...
of Harvard students. He toyed with the notion of requiring PhD candidates to study an area outside their speciality. One obstacle was the organization of faculty into specialized departments that had little contact with each other. In 1935, he attempted to break down the specialization of academic by creating non-departmental university professorships for scholars whose research crossed the boundaries of multiple disciplines. Undergraduates were required to take general education courses, of which a proportion had to be outside their area of concentration. He took a particular interest in establishing a history of science graduate program and a history of science course for nonscientists.
Although he had no daughters and little interest in the education of women, the exigencies of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
meant reduced numbers of male students, and this propelled Conant in that direction. In June 1943, he concluded an agreement with
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...
, the women's college associated with Harvard, for Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences to assume responsibility for the instruction of Radcliffe students. Initially there were separate but identical undergraduate courses for Harvard and Radcliffe students, but this gave way to coeducational classes. It was during his presidency that the first class of women were admitted to
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
in 1945, and
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
in 1950.
National Defense Research Committee
In June 1940, with
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
already raging in Europe,
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II, World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almo ...
, the director of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington, recruited Conant to the
National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), although he remained president of Harvard. Bush envisaged the NDRC as bringing scientists together to "conduct research for the creation and improvement of instrumentalities, methods and materials of warfare." Although the United States had not yet entered the war, Conant was not alone in his conviction that
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
had to be stopped, and that the United States would inevitably become embroiled in the conflict. The immediate task, as Conant saw it, was therefore to organize American science for war. He became head of the NDRC's Division B, the division responsible for bombs, fuels, gases and chemicals. On June 28, 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8807, which created the
Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May ...
(OSRD), with Bush as its director. Conant succeeded Bush as chairman of the NDRC, which was subsumed into the OSRD.
Roger Adams, a contemporary of Conant's at Harvard in the 1910s, succeeded him as head of Division B. Conant became the driving force of the NDRC on personnel and policy matters. The NDRC would work hand in hand with the Army and Navy's research efforts, supplementing rather than supplanting them. It was specifically charged with investigating
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...
.
In February 1941, Roosevelt sent Conant to Britain as head of a mission that also included
Frederick L. Hovde from
Purdue University
Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...
and
Carroll L. Wilson from MIT, to evaluate the research being carried out there and the prospects for cooperation. The 1940
Tizard Mission had revealed that American technology was some years behind that of Britain in many fields, most notably
radar
Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
, and cooperation was eagerly sought. Conant had lunch with Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
and
Frederick Lindemann
Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, ( ; 5 April 18863 July 1957) was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II.
He was involved in the development of radar and infra-red guidan ...
, his leading scientific adviser, and an audience with
King George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of In ...
at
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...
. At a subsequent meeting, Lindemann told Conant about British progress towards developing an
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...
. What most impressed Conant was the British conviction that it was feasible. That the British program was ahead of the American one raised the possibility in Conant's mind that the
German nuclear energy project might be even further ahead, as Germany was generally acknowledged to be a world leader in nuclear physics. Later that year, Churchill, as Chancellor of the
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
, conferred an honorary
Doctor of Laws
A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...
degree on Conant ''in absentia''.
Conant subsequently moved to restrict cooperation with Britain on nuclear energy, particularly its post-war aspects, and became involved in heated negotiations with
Wallace Akers, the representative of
Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys was the research and development programme authorised by the United Kingdom, with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Starting before the Manhattan Project in the United States, the Bri ...
, the British atomic project. Conant's tough stance, under which the British were excluded except where their assistance was vital, resulted in British retaliation, and a complete breakdown of cooperation. His objections were swept aside by Roosevelt, who brokered the 1943
Quebec Agreement
The Quebec Agreement was a secret agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States outlining the terms for the coordinated development of the science and engineering related to nuclear power, nuclear energy and specifically nuclear we ...
with Churchill, that restored full cooperation. After the
Quebec Conference, Churchill visited Conant at Harvard, where Conant returned the 1941 gesture and presented Churchill with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, the OSRD handed the atomic bomb project, better known as the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
,
over to the Army, with Brigadier General
Leslie R. Groves as project director. A meeting that included Conant decided Groves should be answerable to a small committee called the Military Policy Committee, chaired by Bush, with Conant as his alternate. Thus, Conant remained involved in the administration of the Manhattan Project at its highest levels.

In August 1942, Roosevelt appointed Conant to the Rubber Survey Committee. Chaired by
Bernard M. Baruch, a trusted adviser and confidant of Roosevelt, the committee was tasked with reviewing the synthetic rubber program.
Corporations used
patent law
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s to restrict competition and stifle innovation. When the
Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak, followed by the
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies
The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945.
In May 1940, Germany German invasion of the Netherlands, occupied the Netherlands, and ma ...
, cut off 90 percent of the supply of natural rubber,
the rubber shortage became a national scandal, and the development of synthetic substitutes, an urgent priority.
Baruch dealt with the difficult political issues; Conant concerned himself with the technical ones. There were a number of different synthetic rubber products to choose from. In addition to
DuPont
Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to:
People
* Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
's
neoprene
Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene.Werner Obrecht, Jean-Pierre Lambert, Michael Happ, Christiane Oppenheimer-Stix, John Dunn and Ralf Krüger "Rubber, 4. Emulsion Rub ...
,
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...
had licensed German patents for a
copolymer
In polymer chemistry, a copolymer is a polymer derived from more than one species of monomer. The polymerization of monomers into copolymers is called copolymerization. Copolymers obtained from the copolymerization of two monomer species are som ...
called
Buna-N and a related product,
Buna-S. None had been manufactured on the scale now required, and there was pressure from agricultural interests to choose a process which involved making raw materials from farm products. The Rubber Survey Committee made a series of recommendations, including the appointment of a rubber director, and the construction and operation of 51 factories to supply the materials needed for synthetic rubber production.
Technical problems dogged the program through 1943, but by late 1944 plants were in operation with an annual capacity of over a million tons, most of which was Buna-S.
In May 1945, Conant became part of the
Interim Committee that was formed to advise the new president,
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
on nuclear weapons. The Interim Committee decided that the atomic bomb should be used against an industrial target in Japan as soon as possible and without warning. On July 16, 1945, Conant was among the dignitaries present at the
Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range for the
Trinity nuclear test, the first detonation of an atomic bomb. After the war, Conant became concerned about growing criticism in the United States of the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by figures like
Norman Cousins and
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...
. He played an important behind-the-scenes role in shaping public opinion by instigating and then editing an influential February 1947 ''
Harper's'' article entitled "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb". Written by former Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson with the help of
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy (March 30, 1919 – September 16, 1996) was an American academic who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He was president of the Ford Fou ...
, the article stressed that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were used to avoid the possibility of "over a million casualties", from a figure found in the estimates given to the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and ...
by its Joint Planning Staff in 1945.
Cold War
The
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) determined how the United States would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its World War II allies, the United Kingdom and Canada. Most significantly, the Act ru ...
replaced the wartime
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
with the
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on January 1, 1947. The Act also established the General Advisory Committee (GAC) within the AEC to provide it with scientific and technical advice. It was widely expected that Conant would chair the GAC, but the position went to
Robert Oppenheimer, the wartime director of the
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...
that had designed and developed the first atomic bombs. At the same time, the Joint Research and Development Board (JRDC) was established to coordinate defense research, and Bush asked Conant to head its atomic energy subcommittee, on which Oppenheimer also served. When the new AEC chairman
David E. Lilienthal raised security concerns about Oppenheimer's relationships with
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
s, including Oppenheimer's brother
Frank Oppenheimer, his wife Kitty and his former girlfriend
Jean Tatlock, Bush and Conant reassured Lilienthal that they had known about it when they had placed Oppenheimer in charge at Los Alamos in 1942. With such expressions of support, AEC issued Oppenheimer a
Q clearance, granting him access to atomic secrets.
By September 1948, the
Red Scare began to take hold, and Conant called for a ban on hiring teachers who were communists, although not for the dismissal of those who had already been hired. A debate ensued over whether communist educators could teach apolitical subjects. Conant was a member of the Educational Policies Commission (EPC), a body to which he had been appointed in 1941. When it next met in March 1949, Conant's push for a ban was supported by the president of Columbia University,
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
. The two found common ground in their belief in ideology-based education, which Conant called "democratic education". He did not see public education as a side effect of American democracy, but as one of its principal driving forces, and he disapproved of the public funding of
denominational schools that he observed in Australia during his visit there in 1951. He called for increased federal spending on education, and higher taxes to redistribute wealth. His thinking was outlined in his books ''Education in a Divided World'' in 1948, and ''Education and Liberty'' in 1951. In 1952, he went further and endorsed the dismissal of academics who invoked the
Fifth under questioning by the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...
.
A sign of Conant's declining influence occurred in 1950, when he was passed over for the post of President of the National Academy of Sciences in favor of
Detlev Bronk, the president of
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, after a "revolt" by scientists unhappy with Conant. The GAC was enormously influential throughout the late 1940s, but the opposition of Oppenheimer and Conant to the development of the
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
, only to be overridden by Truman in 1950, diminished its stature. It was reduced further when Oppenheimer and Conant were not reappointed when their terms expired in 1952, depriving the GAC of its two best-known members. Conant was appointed to the National Science Board, which administered the new
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
, and was elected its chairman, but this body had little financial or political clout. In April 1951, Truman appointed Conant to the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Science Advisory Committee, but it would not develop into an influential body until the Eisenhower administration.
Conant's experience with the Manhattan Project convinced him that the public needed a better understanding of science, and he moved to expand the nascent
history and philosophy of science program at Harvard. He took the lead personally by teaching a new undergraduate course, Natural Science 4, "On Understanding Science". His course notes became the basis for a book of the same name, published in 1948. In 1952, he began teaching another undergraduate course, Philosophy 150, "A Philosophy of Science". In his teachings and writing on the philosophy of science, he drew heavily on those of his Harvard colleague Willard Van Orman Quine. Conant contributed four chapters to the 1957 ''Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science'', including an account of the overthrow of the phlogiston theory. In 1951, he published ''Science and Common Sense'', in which he attempted to explain the ways of scientists to laymen. Conant's ideas about scientific progress would come under attack by his own protégés, notably Thomas Kuhn in ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''. Conant commented on Kuhn's manuscript in draft form.
Allied High Commissioner
In April 1951, Conant was approached by United States Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson about replacing John J. McCloy as
United States High Commissioner for Germany, but he declined. However, after Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952, Conant was again offered the job by the new Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, and this time he accepted. At the Harvard Board of Overseers meeting on January 12, 1952, Conant announced that he would retire in September 1953 after twenty years at Harvard, having reached the pension age of sixty.
In Germany, there were major issues to be decided. Germany was still occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain and France. Dealing with the wartime allies was a major task for the high commissioner. West Germany, made up of the zones occupied by the three western powers, had been granted control of its own affairs, except for defense and foreign policy, in 1949. While most Germans wanted a neutral and reunited Germany, the Eisenhower administration sought to reduce its defense spending by rearming Germany and replacing American troops with Germans. Meanwhile, the House Un-American Activities Committee slammed Conant's staff as communist sympathizers and called for books by communist authors held in United States Information Agency (USIA) libraries in Germany to be burned.
The first crisis to occur on Conant's watch was the uprising of 1953 in East Germany. This brought the reunification issue to the fore. Konrad Adenauer's deft handling of the issue enabled him to handily win re-election as Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), Chancellor of West Germany in September, but this also strengthened his hand in negotiations with Conant. Adenauer did not want his country to become a bargaining chip between the United States and the Soviet Union, nor did he want it to become a nuclear battlefield, a prospect raised by the arrival of American tactical nuclear weapons in 1953 as part of the Eisenhower administration's New Look (policy), New Look policy. Conant lobbied for the European Defense Community, which would have established a pan-European military. This seemed to be the only way that German rearmament would be accepted, but opposition from France killed the plan. In what Conant considered a minor miracle, France's actions cleared the way for West Germany to become part of NATO with its own army.
At noon on May 6, 1955, Conant, along with the high commissioners from Britain and France, signed the documents ending Allied control of West Germany, admitting it to NATO, and allowing it to rearm. The office of the United States High Commissioner was abolished and Conant became instead the first United States Ambassador to West Germany. His role was now to encourage West Germany to build up its forces, while reassuring the Germans that doing so would not result in a United States withdrawal. Being fluent in German, Conant was able to give speeches to German audiences. He paid numerous visits to German educational and scientific organizations.
While high commissioner, Conant approved the release of many major and other German war criminals after serving only a fraction of their sentences, against protests from American political leaders and veterans' organizations (some of those sentenced had murdered American prisoners), accusing him of "moral amnesia". Such criticism continued when as ambassador he supported the West German government's leniency toward former Nazis.
Carnegie Corporation grant recipient and author
Conant returned to the United States in February 1957, where he leased an apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City.
Between 1957 and 1965, the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave him over a million dollars to write studies of education. In 1959 he published ''
The American High School Today'', better known as the Conant Report. This became a best seller, resulting in Conant's appearance on the cover of Time (magazine), ''Time'' magazine on September 14, 1959. In it, Conant called for a number of reforms, including the consolidation of high schools into larger bodies that could offer a broader range of curriculum choices. Although it was slammed by critics of the American system, who hoped for a system of education based on the European model, it did lead to a wave of reforms across the country.
His subsequent ''Slums and Suburbs'' in 1961 was far more controversial in its treatment of racial issues. Regarding Desegregation busing in the United States, busing as impractical, Conant urged Americans "to accept ''de facto'' segregated schools". This did not go over well with civil rights groups, and by 1964 Conant was forced to admit that he had been wrong. In ''The Education of American Teachers'' in 1963, Conant found much to criticize about the training of teachers. Most controversial was his defense of the arrangement by which teachers were certified by independent bodies rather than the teacher training colleges.
Presidential Medal of Freedom and other recognition
On December 6, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson presented Conant with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with special distinction. He was selected for the award by President John F. Kennedy, but the ceremony was delayed prior to Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Kennedy's assassination.
In February 1970, President Richard Nixon presented Conant with the Atomic Pioneers Award from the Atomic Energy Commission. Other awards that Conant received during his long career included being made a Commander of Légion d'honneur by France in 1936 and an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Britain in 1948, and he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. He was also awarded over 50 honorary degrees, and was posthumously inducted into the Alpha Chi Sigma Hall of Fame in 2000.
Later years and death
Between 1965 and 1969, Conant, living with a heart condition, worked on his biography, ''My Several Lives''. He became increasingly infirm, and had a series of
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
s in 1977. He died in a nursing home in
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a New England town, town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university ...
, on February 11, 1978. His body was cremated and his ashes interred in the Thayer-Richards family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and sons. His papers are in the Harvard University Archives. Among them was a sealed brown Manila envelope that Conant had given the archives in 1951, with instructions that it was to be opened by the president of Harvard in the 21st century. Opened by Harvard's 28th president, Drew Faust, in 2007, it contained a letter in which Conant expressed his hopes and fears for the future. "You will... be in charge of a more prosperous and significant institution than the one over which I have the honor to preside", he wrote. "That [Harvard] will maintain the traditions of academic freedom, of tolerance for heresy, I feel sure."
Legacy
Conant is the namesake of James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and James B. Conant Elementary School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Graduate students
Former graduate students of Conant include:
* Louis Fieser – organic chemist and professor emeritus at Harvard University renowned as the inventor of a militarily effective form of napalm. His award-winning research included work on blood-clotting agents including the first synthesis of vitamin K, synthesis and screening of quinones as antimalarial drugs, work with steroids leading to the synthesis of cortisone, and study of the nature of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
* Benjamin S. Garvey – noted chemist at BF Goodrich who worked on the development of synthetic rubber, contributed to understanding of vulcanization, and developed early techniques for small scale evaluation of rubbers.
*
Frank Westheimer – was the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Harvard University.
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*:For a complete list of his published scientific papers, see .
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
1965 Audio Interview with James B. Conant by Stephane GroueffVoices of the Manhattan Project
* Correspondence between Conant and Linus Pauling.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conant, James Bryant
1893 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American academics
20th-century American chemists
20th-century American diplomats
Ambassadors of the United States to Germany
American physical chemists
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
Conant family, James
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellows of the Royal Institute of Chemistry
Foreign members of the Royal Society
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Harvard College alumni
Harvard University faculty
Honorary commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Manhattan Project people
Medal for Merit recipients
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Presidents of Harvard University
U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program
Delta Upsilon members