Kaji, Masanori (Editor)
Furukawa, Yasu (Editor)
Tanaka, Hiroaki (Editor)
Kikuchi, Yoshiyuki (Editor)
The Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry
Publication date: 2016
Language: English
About fifty historians and chemists participated in the International Workshop on the History of Chemistry (IWHC 2015 Tokyo) held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology between March 2 and 4, 2015. The main theme of this workshop was the transformation of chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s. Chemistry underwent many changes during these years: We saw the development of biochemistry, the emergence of polymer, quantum, and computational chemistry, and the so-called Instrumental Revolution. New methods, theories, and technologies opened up new fields in the chemical sciences. Chemistry expanded its scope by interacting with other sciences such as physics, biology, medicine, and mathematics. The chemical industry grew in importance and supported national and international economies. Production of plastics, synthetic fibers and rubber, fertilizers, drugs, and numerous chemicals shifted from coal to petroleum. The environmental problems caused by synthetic materials tarnished the public image of chemistry as well. Chemistry was also greatly influenced by World War II and the Cold War, when it served military and security purposes. In Japan, too, this period saw remarkable developments in chemistry. The first generation of Japanese chemists began conducting research in the early 20th century. To compete with Western chemists, Japanese chemists adopted a research strategy using techniques developed in Europe to study the structural components of Japan’s local natural products, such as urushi lacquer, ai (indigo), green tea, and rice. Japanese researchers also chemically studied the products of indigenous industries, such as sake, soy sauce, miso, and ceramics. After half a century, however, the accomplishments of, for example, the seven Japanese Nobel laureates in chemistry did not appear fundamentally different than those of their Western counterparts. Clearly, a transformation in chemical research in Japan occurred between the 1920s and the 1960s. Was this change simply due to the globalization of Western chemistry or also due to how chemistry in Japan was institutionalized? Does this change have to do with any peculiarity of Japanese chemistry? The aim of this workshop was to stimulate discussion of the transformation of chemistry in Japan and in the world during this period. This conference brought together scholars investigating the history of chemistry in the 20th century from different perspectives. The three-day workshop included three keynote lectures and eight sessions with twenty-three papers. The keynote speakers consisted of these distinguished historians of chemistry: Jeffery Johnson and Mary Jo Nye from the United States, and Ernst Homburg from the Netherlands. Each presentation was followed by lively discussions. The IWHC 2015 Tokyo was a fruitful and successful international conference on the history of modern chemistry. We are delighted here to make the proceedings open to the public.
...MoreChapter Galina Shyndriayeva (2016) Perfume at the Forefront of Macrocyclic Compound Research: From Switzerland to Du Pont. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 168-177).
Chapter Masanori Wada (2016) The Two International Congresses Held in Tokyo in the 1920s: The Rise of the First Generation of Japanese Scientists. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 35-41).
Chapter Masanori Kaji (2016) The Transformation of Organic Chemistry in Japan: From Majima Riko to the Third International Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 14-19).
Chapter Mine Takeshi (2016) The Small-Scale Ammonia Production of China in the Time of Mao Zedong. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 153-159).
Chapter Mari Yamaguchi (2016) The Pursuit of Accurate Measurements: Gas Electron Diffraction from the 1930s to the 1960s. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 122-128).
Chapter Susanne Rehn-Taube (2016) The Nuclear Fission Table in the Deutsches Museum: A Special Piece of Science History on the Eve of World War II. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 20-17).
Chapter Pierre Laszlo (2016) Structure of the NMR Revolution. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 113-121).
Chapter Yoshiyuki Kikuchi (2016) San-ichiro Mizushima and the Realignment of the International Relations of Japanese Chemistry. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 50-55).
Chapter Noboru Hirota (2016) Robert Mulliken and His Influence on Japanese Physical Chemistry. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 192-199).
Chapter Ronald Brashear (2016) Preserving the History of Modern Chemistry. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 28-34).
Chapter Shintaro Furuya (2016) Polanyi’s Physical Adsorption: One of the Early Theories of Quantum Chemistry. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 178-182).
Chapter Carsten Reinhardt (2016) Physical Methods in the Twentieth Century Between Disciplines and Cultures. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 144-152).
Chapter Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am (2016) “Pauling’s Boys” and DNA Structure: Collaborative Failure in the Transition from Structural Chemistry to Molecular Biology. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 99-112).
Chapter Danielle M. E. Fauque (2016) Jean Gérard, Secretary General and Driving Force of the International Chemical Conferences between the Wars. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 42-49).
Chapter Ian D. Rae (2016) ‘Ideal’ Gases: Anaesthetics in the Heart of the Twentieth Century. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 160-167).
Chapter Jeremiah James (2016) From Physical Chemistry to Chemical Physics, 1913-1941. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 183-191).
Chapter Yasu Furukawa (2016) From Fuel Chemistry to Quantum Chemistry: Kenichi Fukui and the Rise of the Kyoto School. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 138-143).
Chapter Jeffrey Allan Johnson (2016) From Bio-organic Chemistry to Molecular and Synthetic Biology: Fulfilling Emil Fischer’s Dream. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 1-13).
Chapter Keiko KAWASHIMA (2016) Female Scientists Whom Nobuo Yamada Encountered: Early Years of Radio Chemistry and the Radium Institute. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 56-67).
Chapter Makoto Yamaguchi (2016) Development of Vibrational Spectroscopy of Polyatomic Molecules in the 1930s and Its Implication for the Emergence of “Molecular Science”. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 129-137).
Chapter Evan Hepler-Smith (2016) Changing Names and Naming Change: Transformations in the “International Machinery” of Chemical Information. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 68-76).
Chapter Kevin Fujitani (2016) A Child of Many Fathers: The Question of Credit for the Discovery of Thiamine, 1884-1936. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 90-98).
Chapter Mary Jo Nye (2016) A Career at the Center: Linus Pauling and the Transformation of Chemical Science in the Twentieth Century. In: Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s (pp. 77-89).
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