Jeffrey I. Seeman (May 25, 1946,

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...

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. 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 d ...

(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 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 dedicated to mechanical ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

, 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 scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1971.

Career

Scientist

Seeman worked at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

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

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. 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 2 ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

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 university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been 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 ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left ...

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 Middlebrook, Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is b ...

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, 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 fo ...

. 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

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...

. 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 most preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions to the subject, e ...

, 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 Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

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 (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 Ro ...

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