The "New" Science History Institute

I was honored to have attended the reception and ceremony last night announcing the new name and branding of the former Chemical Heritage Foundation. now the Science History Institute. For those of you who have not visited this hidden gem in Philadelphia, it is renowned as a treasure trove of the history of the chemical sciences. The Chemical Heritage merged recently with the Life Sciences Foundation, and with its expanded scope, the old CHF name no longer fit.

The merger and name change recognize the highly interdisciplinary nature of science and the interconnectedness of chemistry, engineering, and the life sciences. Indeed, the newly branded Science History Institute's logo mentions those three disciplines prominently. As the General Manager of Bio-Rad's Informatics Division, headquartered in Philadelphia, it is fascinating to see how those three disciplines touch the company and division of which I am a part. The Informatics Division started as a company that was founded in Philadelphia in 1874 by Dr. Samuel P. Sadtler, a chemist who studied with Friedrich Wöhler at Göttingen University in Germany, who was a professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, who was a co-founder and the first president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Chemistry meets engineering.

Sadtler's company passed from father to son to grandson and was acquired by Bio-Rad in 1978. Bio-Rad was founded by Dave and Alice Schwartz in Berkeley, California in 1952, and under the leadership of current CEO Norman Schwartz, has grown to become a world leader in life science research and clinical diagnostics markets. Chemistry and engineering meet life science.

Dave Schwartz would be honored by the CHF in 2007 with its prestigious Pittcon Heritage Award that "honors those visionaries whose entrepreneurial careers shaped the instrumentation and laboratory supplies community and by doing so have transformed the scientific community at large." It was a well-deserved award for Dave, and his vision for Bio-Rad, with its mix of chemistry, engineering, and life sciences, mirrors the timely change of name and focus from the Chemical Heritage Foundation to the Science History Institute.

I cherish the histories of Sadtler Research Laboratories and Bio-Rad Laboratories, two companies with which my life is now intertwined. To cherish history, however, we must first know and remember it. The history of chemistry, engineering, and life sciences could have no better guardian than the newly rebranded Science History Institute.

Congratulations!