Research schools Paris

MARTIN E. R. SHANAHAN National Centre for Scientific Research/School of Mines Paris, Evry, France... 

Research/School of Mines Paris, Evry, France... 

In chapters 6 through 8,1 concentrate in considerable detail on two research schools that sought to unify organic chemistry and physical chemistry with theoretical foundations built on the ion and electron theory. These schools are loosely designated the "Paris" and the "London-Manchester" schools, where "school" connotes a network of personal and professional associations over several generations at the Ecole Normale Superieure, in the first case, and at London University and the University of Manchester, in the second case. 

The Paris school included Robert Lespieau (18641947), Georges Dupont (18841958), Charles Prevost (18991983), and Albert Kirrmann (19001974). Principal figures in the London-Manchester school were Arthur Lapworth (18721941), Thomas Martin Lowry (18741936), Robert Robinson (18861975), Jocelyn Thorpe (18721940), and Christopher Ingold (18931970). A broadly defined German research school pursuing ionic and electronic theories of reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry does not enter into this history, because it did not exist. 

In later chapters, I analyze two broadly defined research schools, one in France and another in England, and their roles in the development of the discipline of a theoretical chemistry distinct from physical chemistry and theoretical physics. One group, which I call the Paris school, established the field of theoretical chemistry at the Ecole Normale Superieure. It was allied with organic chemistry, on the one hand, and physical chemistry, on the other. The second school, which I call the London-Manchester school, similarly combined problems and approaches from organic and physical chemistry but more daringly dabbled in the physics of electron theory and quantum mechanics. Thus, the discipline of theoretical chemistry took different forms in the two national traditions. 

Davis, J. L. (1995). The research school of Marie Curie in the Paris faculty, 1907-1914. Annals of Science 52 321-355. 

Centre for Substances and Integrated Risk Assessment, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Paris, France Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA Emeritus Professor of Food Science, School of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom... 

Carneiro, A. (1992), The Research School of Chemistry of Adolph Wurtz, Paris, 1853-1884, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Kent, Canterbury. 

The son of a tailor, Joseph Fourier was a member of a large family. Both of his parents died by the time he was nine. His education began at a local, church-run, military school, where he quickly showed talent in his studies and especially in mathematics. His school persuaded him to tram as a priest. While preparing to take holy orders he taught his fellow novices mathematics. Fourier may well have entered the priesthood, but due to the French Revolution new priests were banned from taking holy orders. Instead he returned to his home town of Auxerre and taught at the militaiy school. His friend and mathematics teacher, Bonard, encouraged him to develop his mathematical research, and at the end of 1789 Fourier travelled to Paris to report on this research to the Academic des Sciences. 

For the Paris and the London-Manchester schools, the local culture, educational tradition, laboratory research programs, theoretical systems, and personal networks that helped forge a school identity and a disciplinary identity are worked out in some detail. In addition to constructing an account of a new branch of theoretical chemistry, focused on organic reaction mechanisms, these chapters suggest important differences in national traditions within the disciplinary field of physical organic chemistry. 

Ingold exemplifies a research leader who combined information and approaches from disparate sources, reformulated questions and answers, and extended his influence widely through personal contacts and the activities of his students and collaborators. Publication was important as a means of exchanging information and exerting influence, but so, too, was personal presence. In contrast to the internationalism of the London-Manchester school, the combined intellectual and physical isolation of members of the Paris school in the 1920s and 1930s demonstrates clearly how isolation can lead to a dead end. 

The chemistry of fluorine and its compounds was for many years studied in very few laboratories indeed until about 1920 many of the important new advances came either from the Paris laboratory, in which fluorine was first isolated by Moissan, or from the laboratory of Ruff in Breslau. Ruff s school was particularly productive and many of the topics which are of interest in current research stem directly from the pioneer work carried out under his direction. 

Eugene-Melchior Peligot was born, on February 24, 1811, at Paris. He studied at the Lycee Henri IV and at the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, but was obliged to leave school for financial reasons. In 1832, however, good fortune dawned for him, and he was admitted to the laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique to study under J.-B. Dumas. A few years later he was collaborating with Dumas in important researches in organic chemistry. 

Felix Pisani was a well known French-Italian analytical chemist and mineral dealer who taught chemistry and did consulting analytical work in a private school in Paris which C. F. Gerhardt had formerly conducted. He lived to be almost ninety years old, and continued his researches almost to the time of his death (58). 

In 1797, chromium received its name from a professor of chemistry and assaying at the School of Mines in Paris, Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin. He received some samples of crocoite ore and his subsequent analysis revealed a new metallic element, which he called chromium after the Greek word khroma, meaning color. After further research he detected trace elements of chromium in precious gems - giving the characteristic red color of rubies and the distinctive green of emeralds, serpentine, and chrome mica. 

Sandra Domenek is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School AgroParisTech, Paris, France. She holds an MS in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Graz, Austria and a PhD in Biotechnology from Sup Agro Montpellier. Her research focuses on the relationship between transport properties in polymers and microstructure applied on biobased thermoplastics. 

Pharmacia, 468 Polytechnic University, 261 Science University of Tokyo, 603 Stanford University, 306 Swedish Meat Research Institute, 647 The Hannah Research Institute, 665 The Hospital for Sick Children, 401 Tokyo Women s Medical College, 603 University Laval, 677 University Paris—Nord, 197 University Paris—Sud, 451 University de Bordeaux II, 180 University Hospital, 468 University of British Columbia, 88 University of California—San Diego, 48 University of Florida, 278 University of Leeds, 118 University of Limburg, 208 University of Manchester, 135 University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 422 University of Texas Health Science Center, 378,615 University of Toronto, 401,551,566 University of Utah, 290 University of Washington, 1,239 University of Wisconsin, 324 Veterans Administration Medical Center, 154... 

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