Professional Development Fellowship for a Chemist-Historian: The Life and Work of Alexander Smith (1864 - 1922)

化学家-历史学家专业发展奖学金：亚历山大·史密斯的生活和工作（1864 - 1922）。该提案要求获得专业发展奖学金，以支持首席研究员进行为期一年的研究和跨学科培训。研究部分是一部关于苏格兰裔美国化学家和作家亚历山大·史密斯（1864 -1922）的知识分子传记，史密斯在美国化学和美国大学历史上的独特地位与他所受到的学术关注的缺乏之间的对比，使其获得了知识分子的价值。最近发现了大量由首席研究员直接负责的史密斯的论文，这使得对史密斯生平进行彻底的传记研究首次成为可能。从19世纪90年代到第一次世界大战结束，史密斯是美国化学家界的一位有影响力的人物。他最成功的时期是1906年，他出版了革命性的教科书《普通无机化学导论》。在一代人的时间里，所有商业上成功的化学入门教材都模仿了史密斯的创新和形式，这些创新和形式在100年后的大学课程中继续发挥着强大的、形成性的影响。仅凭这些理由（完整的叙述也描述了其他方面），史密斯就应该被认为是美国化学领域的重要人物，他的传记也应该在美国科学和教育文献中占有一席之地。拟议工作的更广泛影响源于两条线，第一条是与研究的智力价值深深纠缠在一起。除了解释一个重要的历史人物，这项工作将有助于当代科学/化学教育的富有成效的批评。在战前时期，教育规范和资格认证标准的建立既需要吸收对物质本质的新见解，也需要对专业和大学教育的本质进行高度争议和政治化的讨论。斯密同时代人对这些问题的反应是可知的，这些问题转化为课程实践的过程也是可知的。史密斯的人生故事，与这些问题紧密联系在一起，将提供对当前实践的某些方面背后隐藏的课程的重要见解，以及一个历史的比较点，从中想象替代方案。其次，主要研究者确信，在科学研究学科中，包括但不限于科学史在内的智力基础良好、有吸引力的本科课程的发展，是非常可取的，而且当科学系有投资、学院参与时，更有可能成功。然而，如果没有方法论的训练和专业知识，一个善意的科学家在这个过程中几乎没有什么贡献。该提案的培训部分——在多伦多大学科技历史与哲学研究所学习一年——对于PIs继续富有成效地参与芒特霍利奥克大学的此类项目发展的能力至关重要。

Professional Development Fellowship for a Chemist-Historian: TheLife and Work of Alexander Smith (1864 - 1922).Project SummaryThis proposal requests a Professional Development Fellowship to support a year of research and cross-disciplinary training by the Principal Investigator. The research component, an intellectual biography of the Scottish-American chemist and author Alexander Smith (1864 -1922), derives its intellectual merit from the contrast between Smiths unique position in the history of American chemistry and of the American university, and the lack of scholarly attention he has received. The recent discovery of a large collection of Smith s papers, for which the principal investigator is directly responsible, makes a thorough biographical study of Smith s life feasible for the first time. Smith was an influential figure in the community of American chemists from the 1890s to the end of the first world war. The period of his greatest success dates from 1906 and the publication of his revolutionary textbook, Introduction to General Inorganic Chemistry. Within a generation all commercially successful introductory chemistry texts imitated Smith s innovations and format, which continue to exert a strong, formative influence on university curricula 100 years later. On these grounds alone (the full narrative describes others as well), Smith deserves recognition as a significant figure in American chemistry, and his biography merits a place in the literature of American science and education. The broader impact of the proposed work derives along two lines, the first of which is deeply enmeshed with the intellectual merit of the research. In addition to explicating a significant historical figure, this work will contribute to the productive critique of contemporary science/chemistry education. The establishment of educational norms and credentialing criteria during the pre-war period entailed both assimilation of new insights into the nature of matter and highly contentious and politicized conversations about the nature of the profession and of university education. The responses of Smith s contemporaries to these problems are knowable, as is the process by which they were transformed into curricular practice. The story of Smith s life, told in close connection with these issues, will provide both important insight into the hidden curriculum behind some aspects of current practice, as well as a historical point of comparison from which to imagine alternatives. Second, it is a conviction of the principal investigator that the development of intellectually well-grounded and attractive undergraduate programs in science studies disciplines, including but not limited to the history of science, is both highly desirable and more likely to succeed when science departments are invested, collegial participants. However, without methodological training and subject-matter expertise, a well-intentioned scientist has little to bring to that process. The training component of this proposal -- a year of study at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto -- is critical to the PIs ability to continue his fruitful participation in such programmatic developments at Mount Holyoke.