Catalysis Princeton University, 63 years

Kemball kept an active interest in physical adsorption for several years, but a defining change came in 1946 with the award of a fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund of New York for research and travel in the United States. Influenced by Eric Rideal s long-standing friendship with Hugh S. Taylor, who had known Rideal since World War I when they worked together in London on the catalysis of carbon monoxide oxidation, Charles chose to spend his fellowship year with Professor Taylor at Princeton University. Here he was introduced to experimental work on catalysis and. 

Professor Turkevich attracted many students and foreign scholars to Princeton University and expanded its reputation as a world center for catalysis research. As an Orthodox priest. Rev. Prof. Turkevich served the spiritual needs of the university for 25 years as the Orthodox chaplain and those of the Princeton community throughout his hfe. He was a spiritual father, counselor, and master of the sermon. He was loved by his colleagues, students, and parishioners, who also saw him as a role model for uniting the spiritual and scientific worlds. 

Zeolites, crystalline alumina silicates with open regular structure, oiFer unusual opportunities for carrying out catal3rtic studies. Their well-defined crystalline structure and their regular pore distribution permit a better description of the surface than that offered by alumina-silica gel catalysts. Consequently, in recent years they have been the object of many scientific investigations. In addition, zeolites of a variety of types have shown highly desirable properties in industrial catalysis (1.2). This chapter is a review of the work on zeolites carried out at Princeton University and is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the topic. 

Steven Bernasek joined the faculty in 1976 and Jeffrey Schwartz in 1970. Both are active one in surface chemistry and the other in catalysis. The work in the Chemistry Department has been complemented by that in the Department of Chemical Engineering by Richard Wilhelm (1934-65), Leon Lapidus (1954-1977), Michel Boudart (1953-1962) and David Ollis (1969-1980). For sixty-three years there has been a continuity of research in catalysis at Princeton University continuity in basic ideas expressed by novel techniques. There was close association between the research activity and training of undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral research associates and visiting professors. The students carried out and are still carrying out the Princeton tradition throughout the world. 

Catalysis started at Princeton in 1919 when Taylor(l) came from England to join the Chemistry Department. Turkevich came as a graduate student of Taylor s in 1931. Except for one year at Leipzig and Cambridge Universities, Turkevich remained at Princeton since that time. Taylor assumed the deanship of the Graduate School in 1948 and retired in 1958. Turkevich retired from teaching in 1975 and is still active in catalytic research. 

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