Edward McCollin Arnett (September 25, 1922 – May 11, 2022) was an American chemist.

Early life

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, to John Hancock Arnett, a physician, and Katherine Williams McCollin, a singer and composer, Arnett was a Quaker and

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

who served in the

Civilian Public Service The Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program of the United States government that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their ...

during World War II. Arnett completed his undergraduate degree at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, and in 1949, earned a Ph.D from the same institution.

Academic career

He began teaching at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

in 1957. In 1968, Arnett was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. He joined the faculty of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1980 and, three years later, was named a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Nati ...

. At Duke, Arnett was appointed the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, and retired in 1992.

Personal life

Arnett died on May 11, 2022, at the age of 99.

Selected bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnett, Edward 1922 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American chemists American conscientious objectors Duke University faculty Members of the Civilian Public Service Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty