EDUCATION

Place of biochemistry still a problem A special AC3 panel suggests some ways to put biochemistry and biochemists into chemistry departments

A growing number of college and uni­versity chemistry departments today are asking themselves how to incorpo­rate biochemistry, and biochemists, in the chemistry curriculum. The issue is not proving easy to resolve. A spe­cial panel of the Advisory Council on College Chemistry, meeting in Chi­cago, offered these guidelines:

•Every basic course in chemistry should include several examples of where biochemistry applies.

• There should be a one-semester course in biochemistry available in chemistry departments, with a year each of organic and physical chemis­try as prerequisites.

• Every chemistry department should aim toward a faculty composed of 20 to 25% chemists whose work or interests include biochemical topics.

AC3 was trying to offer a little wis­dom to institutions that began facing the problem when biochemists first be­gan to come on the scene. The prob­lems are real, and human. For exam­ple, some time ago an enzymologist left an Ivy League school to join the chemistry staff of a Big 10 university. He was to be that department's first biochemist. After about three semes­ters of discontent he was gone, driven away by an angry loneliness. Rapport between him and his chemical col­leagues never developed and the isola­tion became intolerable.

To be sure, such episodes aren't to­day's rule. Biochemists are finding contentment in more chemistry de­partments than ever before. In fact, the department that proved so de­pressing to the itinerant enzymologist looks ahead to creating a seven-man biochemistry division.

But rumbles of discontent are by no means quelled. Scientific change, par­ticularly in biology, is putting chemis­try departments under increasing pres­sure to shed past indifference to prob­lems of biological significance. To some departments the experience is wrenching, mainly because biochemis­try branches across departmental lines.

A midwestern university, notorious

for its warring physiological chemistry and agricultural biochemistry depart­ments, has further stirred the political pot by creating a college of biological sciences. The aim is an enforced peace. But to further complicate mat­ters, the chemistry department has re­cently established a division of bio­chemistry. The chemistry department now fears administration "interference with a plan the department took years to formulate.

An institution on the West Coast is especially fragmented. Besides the chemistry department's biochemical work, related research is being pressed by departments of biophysics, bio­chemistry, and molecular biology. Furthermore, the anatomy department recently hired an x-ray crystallogra-pher to add to its already competent capability in electron microscopy.

Distressing to biology department or medical school chemists is what they regard as the massive indifference among chemistry departments to­ward incorporating biochemical ideas into classical chemistry subjects. One eastern university, otherwise noted for its educational farsightedness, virtu­ally ignores the needs of the chemis­try student planning a career in bio­chemistry. He needs the chemical grounding, to be sure, and he gets it. But the physical chemistry course, for example, almost completely leaves out studies of the biochemically relevant liquid state and, instead, emphasizes topics such as the hydrogen atom.

Mentioned in passing at the Chi­cago AC3 panel meeting was the big need for a biochemistry textbook aimed at the level of a chemistry major. Too many texts, it was agreed, are exten­sively biologically or medically di­rected. Also an issue at the meeting was the fact that biochemists consider more than three hours a week of teach­ing an imposition. (Medical school biochemists, for example, can keep their teaching loads down to one hour a semester. ) Especially regretted was that most chemists are outright indif­ferent to biochemistry.

It's understandable why. Chemis­try departments simply lack a tradition in biochemistry. For them it's an ap­plied subject. As Duke University's Philip Handler puts it: "Chemists simply ignore the living state as some­thing to be concerned about. It's a relatively rare physical or organic chemist who gives a darn about what an enzyme does and how it does it.

The image they have of the biochem­ist is that all he does is collect blood, sweat, and tears. They thought it when I was young and, at that time, they were right, but they think it now. What they didn't have back then is a vision of where you could go if you pushed at it."

Chemistry departments, however, are getting concerned. Many are short of funds and they realize most of the federal science gold goes into bio­logical chemistry. And they're con­cerned, too, that many of their best students are winding up in biology de­partments to pursue what in reality are among some of the world's most exciting and relevant chemical prob­lems—the chemistry of thought and memory, the enzymology of cancer, enzymic catalysis, conversion and transfer of energy in the cell. The list is endless.

Some departments are trying to join forces. One of the best examples is Princeton's program, in which the bi­ology and chemistry departments have been successfully integrated. Since 1961, says Dr. Walter Kauzmann, chemistry department chairman, each department has hired six biochemists as core members of the program. While the program is primarily direct­ed at graduate training, undergradu­ates in either department are offered a one-semester course in biochemistry to supplement their major course work. No undergraduate biochemistry de­gree is given, even to those who plan to enter the field.

Basic course. "The general feel­ing," Dr. Kauzmann says, "is that it is more important that they take the basic courses in chemistry and biology than get a lot of detailed information about biochemistry itself. All under­graduates also do independent work and, of course, they learn a good deal of biochemistry through this."

At Illinois, on the other hand, un­dergraduates can specialize in bio­chemistry through a curriculum fabri­cated by the chemistry department's 10-man biochemistry division. (Other divisions are organic, physical, inor­ganic, and analytical, and chemical engineering.) Illinois is unusual for another reason. Its chemistry depart­ment offers the university's sole gradu­ate degree in biochemistry. In con­trast, many large universities offer bio­chemistry degrees in more than one department—agricultural college and medical school, for example. Illinois

52 C&EN APRIL 10, 1967

looks toward beginning a full-fledged undergraduate biochemistry degree program.

At the University of Texas, too, all biochemists are trained in the chemis­try department. The biochemical tra­dition at Austin grew around the ideas of Dr. Roger J. Williams, whose credo was "chemist first, biochemist sec­ond." The department makes it a point to hire only chemistry-oriented biochemists for its staff (which now numbers 40, including eight biochem­ists). Dr. George W. Watt says, "The tendency on our campus today is for biology departments to hire chemists. This presents problems when such per­sons request appointments in our de­partment, too. Other departments might hire people we think just don't qualify as members of our own staff."

Thus, it's apparent that each cam­pus is handling the problem in its own way. One senior biochemist on the way out to O'Hare airport after the AC3 gathering jokingly told a few of his colleagues, "Maybe we ought to turn all these curriculum matters over to the young people on the staff. They have the freshest ideas."

EDUCATION IN BRIEF

NSF has granted $2.2 million for young engineering professors from engineering colleges throughout the country to conduct postdoctoral re­search during the next year. The en­gineering research initiation grants, made to 86 institutions in 37 states and the District of Columbia, are de­signed to encourage research by engi­neering faculty members who recently have received doctoral degrees, have begun teaching careers, and who have had no substantial research support to date. The National Science Founda­tion's program for young engineers, now in its fourth year, encourages young engineers, who received their doctoral degrees at the major schools and are interested in research, to ac­cept teaching positions at other than the major engineering schools. The grants, available on a competitive ba­sis, were made for one or two years with a maximum annual rate of $10,-000.

A small reactor may be installed at the University Heights campus of New York University, New York City. The Atomic Energy Commission is consid­ering licensing NYU to operate the re­actor, which was formerly at the Na­tional Naval Medical Center, Be-thesda, Md. The reactor, which would be operated at a power level of 0.1 watt (thermal), would be used for research and for training students in NYlfs nuclear engineering program.

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Better Things for Better Living . . . through Chemistry

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NSF has awarded 150 fellowships for postdoctoral research in mathematics, engineering, and the physical, social, and life sciences. Each award in­cludes an annual stipend of $6500, an allowance for dependents, and an al­lowance for traveling costs to the fel­lowship institution. Recipients were selected from among 1043 applicants. In addition, NSF has awarded 1496 graduate fellowships in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering for the academic year 1967-68. Almost half of the fellowships are for two years.

Some 30 scientific short courses will be offered to management and profes­sional personnel during "Industry Week" (May 29 to June 2) at North Carolina State University. Included are courses in industrial, chemical, electrical, mechanical, nuclear, and civil engineering to acquaint business­men with rapid scientific advances.

A polymer science department at Ak­ron University has been created to assist the university's Institute of Pol­ymer Science by administering gradu­ate and undergraduate programs. Heading the new academic depart­ment is Dr. Maurice Morton, profes­sor of polymer chemistry and director of IPS. The new departmental faculty will represent the various disciplines of polymer chemistry, but will retain their present positions in the science departments.

An institute of ocean engineering has been established at Catholic Univer­sity, Washington, D.C. The univer­sity will offer graduate programs in the field, leading to the doctor of en­gineering in ocean engineering. Di­rector of the new institute is Dr. Frank A. Andrews, a retired Navy captain and mechanics research professor at the university.

Chemistry classes use big-screen TV at Ohio State University to give each student in a large lecture hall a clear view of demonstrations. The large screen, measuring 13 X 13 feet, and special TV projector cost $15,000. Dr. W. T. Lippincott and W. R. Bar­nard of the OSU chemistry faculty be­lieve it is the first such installation in a chemistry lecture hall completely un­der the control of the classroom in­structor. The instructor can use the TV system live or with previously pre­pared videotapes, or a combination of both. Videotapes can be used to show large-screen pictures of difficult or dangerous experiments, the operation of complex and cumbersome equip­ment, and tiny details—all of which are impossible to show in the usual lecture presentation, Dr. Lippincott says.

54 C&EN APRIL 10, 1967

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