Alum Named Chem Society President

Columbia University chemistry professor Ronald C. Breslow '52 last month was elected president of the world's largest scientific society.

Breslow, who is a Columbia university professor--the school's highest faculty rank--was chosen to lead the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 1996.

"Breslow is a very bright man and is a very attractive person," Frank H. Westheimer, Loeb professor of chemistry, emeritus, said Monday.

Breslow will assume the position of president-elect on January 1, 1995, and will subsequently serve a one-year term as president of the Society in 1996. Breslow, who has been an ACS member since 1952, was elected by the society's members through mail ballot.

"I have been asked once before by the nominating committee [of the ACS] to run for the position of president," Breslow told The Crimson last Thursday. "I declined then, but I believe now is a more difficult time for chemistry."

"I believe that there is a generally negative image of chemistry," Breslow added. "It is very desirable to get a positive image out. I think most people forget that all common medicinal drugs are synthesized by chemists."

Breslow received his A.B. with summa honors in 1952, his M.A. in 1954 and his Ph.D. in 1955, all from Harvard. He was awarded his Ph.D. after working for only two years in the Harvard chemistry department.

"Getting your doctorate in two years was remarkable then, and unheard of today," Westheimer said. "[Breslow] subsequently went to Cambridge University to work with Alex Todd, one of the earliest researchers in nucleic acid chemistry."

While in England, Breslow made two important discoveries, according to Westheimer.

Breslow worked on the action mechanism of the thiamine vitamin and later made his most important discovery working with the cyclopropenone compound, Westheimer said In addition to his responsibilities in the AGS and at Columbia, Breslow serves on Rockefeller University's Board of Trustees and on the editorial boards of a dozen scientific publications.

Breslow, a Lowell House resident at the College, said that for the first time ever, the chemistry profession is facing an uncertain in future.

"There is a contraction in industry," Breslow said. "Never before have chemists been laid off. Physics and mathematics have always had that problem. We must make sure chemistry does not."

The ACS was founded in 1876 and is a non-profit organization. It has a membership of nearly 150,000 chemists and chemical engineers and is recognized as a world leader in fostering scientific education and research, and in promoting public understanding of science.