Jeffrey I. Seeman (May 25, 1946,

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

) is a historian of science, chemist, and Visiting Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approxim ...

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. He is the editor of 20+ volumes in the series ''Profiles, pathways and dreams : autobiographies of eminent chemists''. In addition to writing extensively as both a scientist and historian, he has produced short films for historical and educational use. Seeman has chaired the Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) of 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 ...

(ACS), and created the division's ''Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award'', first given in 2006 to mark "breakthrough publications, books and patents worldwide" in the field of chemistry. Seeman was awarded the 2017 HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the Division of the History of Chemistry of the ACS, presented on March 20, 2018.

Education

Seeman attended the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely de ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree, high honors, in chemistry in 1967. He earned a Ph.D. in

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 ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1971.

Career

Scientist

Seeman worked at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

on a fellowship, before joining the Philip Morris Research Center in

. He worked there from 1973 to 1999, publishing more than 90 scientific papers and filing patents.

Historian

A sabbatical year at the

Dyson Perrins Laboratory The Dyson Perrins Laboratory is in the science area of the University of Oxford and was the main centre for research into organic chemistry of the University from its foundation in 1916 until its closure as a research laboratory in 2003. Until ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1983-1984 inspired Seeman's interest in the history of organic chemistry, and the beginning of his second career. Between 1990 and 1997 Seeman proposed and edited 20 volumes of autobiographies of organic chemists, published by the

and

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

under the series title ''Profiles, Pathways and Dreams''. The series contains autobiographies of Arthur Birch, Andrew Streitweiser,

Bruce Merrifield Robert Bruce Merrifield (July 15, 1921 – May 14, 2006) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis. Early life He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on 15 July 1921, t ...

Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is best known for his ...

Ernest Eliel Ernest Ludwig Eliel (December 28, 1921 – September 18, 2008) was an organic chemist born in Cologne, Germany. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 1996

and

Koji Nakanishi was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University. Early life Nakanishi was born in Hong Kong on May 11, 19 ...

, among others, with the goal of portraying "science as a human endeavor". They have been described as "lively and informative" and "exemplary in this genre" of scientific biography. After his retirement from Philip Morris in 1999, Seeman became a fellow, and later a member of the board of directors, at the

Chemical Heritage Foundation The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It was ...

. From 2005 to 2006, he served as Chair of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (HIST). He created the Citation for Chemical Breakthrough (CCB) Award program to commemorate international historically important publications in the field of chemistry. He has also organized history of chemistry symposia for many ACS conferences. As of 2007, he joined the

. As both a scientist and a historian, he is able to write knowledgeably about scientists such as

Robert Burns Woodward Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an American organic chemist. He is considered by many to be the preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions to the subject, esp ...

, their work, and their disputes. He has published more than 55 papers on the history and sociology of chemistry. These include studies with Mark House into authorship and the perceptions and crediting of contributions by working scientists. Seeman has been active on the advisory board of ''The Journal of Organic Chemistry'', and of ''Accountability in Research'', and was the guest editor of their edition on Ethics and Responsible Conduct. Seeman's writing on education includes the incorporation of history and biography into chemistry curricula. Seeman produces short films or videos on the history and sociology of chemistry, for education and historical use. He produced an accompanying video for the book ''Arnold O. Beckman: One Hundred Years of Excellence''. The ''Eminent Organic Chemists'' series interviewed 20 organic chemists as part of the 100th birthday of the Division of Organic Chemistry (ORGN) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2008. ''The Archimedes Initiative'', which focused on students involved in high school science fairs, received a Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation award in 2009. Seeman has also been a consultant to the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

on their series of stamps commemorating American Scientists.

Awards

In 2007, Seeman received the Distinguished Service Award from the Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society. Seeman was named the 2017 Wheeler Lecturer by the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

in London, for significant contributions to the history of chemistry. Also in 2017, Seeman was awarded the HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the Division of the History of Chemistry, to be presented on March 20, 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seeman, Jeffrey I. 1946 births Living people Historians of science People from Jersey City, New Jersey Stevens Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Richmond people