Otto Theodor Benfey (born 31 October 1925) is a chemist and historian of science. Sent to England to escape
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Germany at age 10, he completed his education as a chemist at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
before moving to the United States. A
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
and a
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
, Benfey taught at
Haverford College
Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...
,
Earlham College
Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...
, and
Guilford College
Guilford College is a private liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of ...
, retiring in 1988 as the Dana Professor of Chemistry and History of Science, Emeritus.
Benfey is known for his work on
chemical education
Chemistry education (or chemical education) is the study of teaching and learning chemistry. It is one subset of STEM education or discipline-based education research (DBER). Topics in chemistry education include understanding how students learn ...
and the
history of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
. He edited the
ACS-sponsored high school magazine ''Chemistry'' for fifteen years. His translations include ''The Japanese and Western Science'' by Masao Watanabe, ''The History of the International Chemical Industry'' by
Fred Aftalion, and ''My 132 Semesters of Chemistry Studies'' by Vladimir Prelog. His books include ''From vital force to structural formulas'' (1964), ''Introduction to Organic Reaction Mechanisms'' (1970), and ''Robert Burns Woodward. Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules'' (2001).
Childhood
Otto Theodor Benfey was born on 31 October 1925, to Eduard Benfey and his second wife, Lotte Maria (Fleischmann) Benfey, in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Eduard Benfey, a graduate of the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, had served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Economic Arbitration during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
. Although his parents had converted to
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
, the family was still regarded as
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
by the increasingly powerful
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
.
In 1936, Ted Benfey was sent to live in England with family friends, the Mendls. He attended the
Watford Grammar School with their son, Wolf Mendl.
Ted Benfey and Wolf Mendl were both confirmed in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, but eventually both they and Mrs. Mendl joined the
Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
, or Quakers.
Following
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
in 1938, Benfey's younger brother and older sister joined him briefly in England. Eduard and Lotte Benfey were eventually successful in getting American visas, because Lotte's sister
Anni Albers
Anni Albers (born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann; June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994) was a German textile artist and printmaker credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art.
Early life and education
Anni Albers was born Ann ...
and her husband
Josef Albers
Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...
were
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
artists, teaching at
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...
in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. While the rest of the family were reunited as immigrants in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, the Mendls invited Ted to remain with them and complete his education.
University education
Benfey's interests 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.; ...
and
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
led him to apply to study chemistry at university, and he was accepted at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the chemistry department was relocated to
Aberystwyth, Wales
Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...
. Beginning in 1942, Benfey lived there in a cooperative student hostel. One of his close friends was Nigerian
Stephen Oluwole Awokoya. In 1944, Benfey took his examinations, and was awarded his B.Sc. degree with first class honors in 1945.
Soon after, University College London moved back to London. London was still under attack from
V-1 V1, V01 or V-1 can refer to version one (for anything) (e.g., see version control)
V1, V01 or V-1 may also refer to:
In aircraft
* V-1 flying bomb, a World War II German weapon
* V1 speed, the maximum speed at which an aircraft pilot may abort ...
and
V-2 rocket
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...
s. Benfey was invited to continue his studies and do Ph.D. work with
Christopher Kelk Ingold
Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold (28 October 1893 – 8 December 1970) was a British chemist based in Leeds and London. His groundbreaking work in the 1920s and 1930s on reaction mechanisms and the electronic structure of organic compounds was resp ...
. As a Quaker, he could not agree to work on anything relating to weapons development. Ingold assigned him to work on aliphatic substitution and evidence for
carbocation
A carbocation is an ion with a positively charged carbon atom. Among the simplest examples are the methenium , methanium and vinyl cations. Occasionally, carbocations that bear more than one positively charged carbon atom are also encountere ...
.
Benfey received his Doctor of Philosophy from University College, London in 1947.
[
During his Ph.D. work, Benfey studied the effects of salts on alkyl halide hydrolysis reaction rates. He showed that "two salts could have inverse effects depending on the leaving group of the alkyl halide," the opposite of a prediction made by ]Louis Plack Hammett
Louis Plack Hammett (April 7, 1894 – February 9, 1987) was an American physical chemist. He is known for the Hammett equation, which relates reaction rates to equilibrium constants for certain classes of organic reactions involving sub ...
. On the basis of this work, Benfey obtained a London University postdoctoral traveling fellowship, enabling him to work with Hammett at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Career
Haverford College
Although he had fully intended to return to England, Benfey was approached by Haverford College
Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...
, a Quaker institution, and invited to join the chemistry faculty. He accepted, becoming one of four members of the department in January 1948. Soon after, he met Rachel Thomas, a teacher at Haverford Friends School and an artist. Rachel's fiancé, Sergei Thomas, had died in an accident a few months earlier. She and Ted Benfey were married in 1949. Also in 1949, Benfey attended the first meeting of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science
The Society for Social Responsibility in Science (SSRS) was an organization founded in 1949 at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, USA, dedicated to fostering the responsible use of science for the benefit of society. It was a unique organization th ...
(SSRS) at Haverford, organized by Victor Paschkis. Benfey became its second president in 1951.
During his time at Haverford, several people influenced Benfey and shaped his career as a historian of science.
One was William Buell Meldrum, the department head at Haverford when Benfey joined the faculty. Like Christopher Kelk Ingold, Meldrum approached the teaching of chemistry from a historical and philosophical viewpoint, a model which Benfey followed.
Another influence was James B. Conant
James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1916. ...
of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. Benfey attended a summer school in which Conant focused on case histories in experimental science.
Henry Margenau
Henry Margenau (April 30, 1901 – February 8, 1997) was a German-American physicist, and philosopher of science.
Biography Early life
Born in Bielefeld, Germany, Margenau obtained his bachelor's degree from Midland Lutheran College, Nebraska befo ...
, a visiting professor from Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, recruited Benfey to translate Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science.
Aft ...
's ''Determinismus und Indeterminismus in der modernen Physik'' into English. It became the first of many Benfey translations.
Benfey chose to resign from Haverford as his sabbatical year approached. He spent his sabbatical year working with Frank Westheimer of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. He also prepared the manuscript for ''From vital force to structural formulas'' (1964). It became the first book in the Houghton Mifflin series ''Classic Researches in Organic Chemistry''.
Earlham College
In the fall of 1955, Benfey was approached by Larry Strong at Earlham College
Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...
, who invited him to become the third member of the chemistry department, with Strong and Wilmer Stratton. Benfey and Strong began to develop a new curriculum based on concepts. In 1958, their new curriculum was published in the report of the Advisory Council on College Chemistry. After graduating three National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
Fellowship awardees in its first group of students, the American Chemical Society's Committee on Professional Training (CPT) approved the Earlham curriculum, and accepted it as a model for "curricular innovation". The work at Earlham also led to development of a United States high school curriculum for chemistry, ''The Chemical Bond Approach'', which received international attention.
In 1963, Benfey was invited by 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 ...
to become the editor of ''Chemistry'' magazine, for high school students. From January 1964 to 1978, Benfey edited a highly respected magazine. He increased its publication five-fold, reaching as many as 30,000 students and teachers. The magazine acted as a model for similar publications internationally.
One of the Benfey's publications in ''Chemistry'' was a model of an extended periodic table
An extended periodic table theorises about chemical elements beyond those currently known in the periodic table and proven. , the element with the highest atomic number known is oganesson (''Z'' = 118), which completes the seventh period (row) ...
, sometimes referred to as the periodic snail. First published in 1964, it explicitly showed the location of lanthanides
The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–71, from lanthanum through lutetium. These elements, along with the chemically similar elements scandium and yttr ...
and actinides
The actinide () or actinoid () series encompasses the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers from 89 to 103, actinium through lawrencium. The actinide series derives its name from the first element in the series, actinium. The inform ...
. The elements form a two-dimensional spiral, starting from hydrogen, and folding their way around two peninsulars, the transition metals, and lanthanides and actinides. A superactinide island is already slotted in.
Benfey was active in the Division of History of Chemistry (HIST) of the American Chemical Society, serving as chair of the division in 1966.
Benfey continued to publish articles and books on the history of chemistry, writing about scientists such as Archibald Scott Couper
Archibald Scott Couper (; 31 March 1831 – 11 March 1892) was a Scottish chemist who proposed an early theory of chemical structure and bonding. He developed the concepts of tetravalent carbon atoms linking together to form large molecules ...
, Lothar Meyer
Julius Lothar Meyer (19 August 1830 – 11 April 1895) was a German chemist. He was one of the pioneers in developing the earliest versions of the periodic table of the chemical elements. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (his chief rival) and he ...
, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and Alexander William Williamson
Prof Alexander William Williamson FRS FRSE PCS MRIA (1 May 18246 May 1904) was an English chemist. He is best known today for the Williamson ether synthesis.
Life
Williamson was born in 1824 in Wandsworth, London, the second of three child ...
. He wrote ''Names and Structures of Organic Molecules'' (Wiley, 1966) and ''Introduction to Organic Reaction Mechanisms'', the first in the Interface series of books by the NSF's Advisory Council on College Chemistry (McGraw-Hill, 1970).
Guilford College
In 1970, Benfey and his family spent a year at Kwansei Gakuin University
, colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 u ...
in
Nishinomiya, Japan
270px, Nishinomiya City Hall
270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center
270px, Hirota Shrine
is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218948 households and a population density of ...
enabling him to deepen his interest in the history of science in the Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
. Benfey studied the use of regular solid geometry
In mathematics, solid geometry or stereometry is the traditional name for the geometry of Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, Euclidean spaces (i.e., 3D geometry).
Stereometry deals with the measurements of volumes of various solid fig ...
in Japan, relating geometry, chemical structure, and origami
) is the Japanese paper art, art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of pape ...
techniques. He also worked on translating an account of the history of Chinese science by Yabuuchi Kiyoshi.
After their return, the Benfeys were approached by Grirnsley Hobbs, who eventually convinced them to move to Guilford College
Guilford College is a private liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of ...
in North Carolina in 1973. Benfey recruited David MacInnes and they began teaching continuing education courses on basic chemistry in the evening, targeting nearby Ciba-Geigy
Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...
employees. Benfey also taught
history of science courses that met the science requirement for non-science
majors. His students included Frances Moore Lappé
Frances Moore Lappé (born February 10, 1944) is an American researcher and author in the area of food and democracy policy. She is the author of 19 books including the three-million-copy selling 1971 book ''Diet for a Small Planet'', which the ...
, David Rhees of the Bakken Museum
The Bakken is a science museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, founded in 1975 by Earl Bakken, the co-founder of Medtronic. The exhibits present a history and explanation of electricity and electromagnetism.
Exhibits
Approxima ...
, and William R. Newman. He taught interdisciplinary classes with a variety of colleagues.
Benfey formally retired from Guilford College in 1988, as the Dana Professor of Chemistry and History of Science, Emeritus.
Retirement
After moving to Philadelphia in 1989, Benfey became an adjunct professor in History and Sociology of Science 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 ...
. He also became the editor of the ''Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
The ''Bulletin for the History of Chemistry'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles on the history of chemistry. The journal is published by the History of Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society.
{{DEFAULTS ...
'' (1988-1995) of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry (later the ''Chemical Heritage Magazine'' of 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 ...
).
He served on advisory boards for ''The Scientist'' magazine (1986-1996), ''The Chemical Sciences in Society'' (1989-1998) and '' Foundations of Chemistry'' (1998- ).
He continued to write, translate and publish. His translations include ''The Japanese and Western Science'' by Masao Watanabe (from German to English, originally in Japanese), ''The History of the International Chemical Industry'' by Fred Aftalion (from French to English), and Vladimir Prelog
Vladimir Prelog (23 July 1906 – 7 January 1998) was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born and grew up in ...
's autobiography ''My 132 Semesters of Chemistry Studies'' (German to English).
Benfey wrote about a number of scientists, particularly Carl Schorlemmer
Carl Schorlemmer FRS (30 September 1834 – 27 June 1892) was a German chemist who did research on hydrocarbons and contributed to the study of the history of chemistry.
Early life and education
Schorlemmer was born in 1834, the son of a join ...
, August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...
, and 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 ...
.
In 1996, the Benfeys moved to the Friends Homes at Guilford, a Quaker retirement community. Benfey published ''Robert Burns Woodward. Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules'' with co-editor Peter Morris in 2001. He continued to serve as editor at large of the ''Chemical Heritage Magazine'' until 2014. He gathered and published four volumes of ''The Experience of War: Residents of Friends Homes Tell Their Stories'' (2009, 2010, 2012, 2014).
Rachel Benfey survived a stroke in 2005, and died on 22 September 2013.
Awards and honors
* 2019, HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry, Division of the History of Chemistry, 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 ...
* 2016, “A Salute to Ted Benfey at 90: Science, History, Culture & a Commitment to Humanism,” symposium in Benfey’s honor, 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 ...
national meeting in Philadelphia, 22 August 2016
See also
* Alternative periodic tables
Alternative periodic tables are tabulations of chemical elements differing in their organization from the traditional depiction of the periodic system.
Over a thousand have been devised, often for didactic reasons, as not all correlations betw ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benfey, Otto Theodor
1925 births
Living people
Alumni of University College London
British Christian pacifists
Earlham College faculty
German emigrants to the United Kingdom
German Quakers
Guilford College faculty
Haverford College faculty
Historians of science