00:00:00 These are the shoulders of giants. People who created change. They share the elements of genius, inspiration, and perspiration. And they share the added spark, the elusive extra qualities that make greatness. These qualities are common among our honorees.

00:00:30 When I think of Herbert Dow, the first thing that comes to my mind was an absolute genius. A totally brilliant man. And to me, genius means not only having the ideas, but having the ability to bring the idea to fruition.

00:00:51 I think he was a very human person. With all of his intelligence and ability, his sense of humor, he cared about people. He certainly cared about the community in which he lived. His business was certainly important. His family was important, but so was this town. And he played a major role in making this town beautiful and a wonderful place for his employees to live.

00:01:15 As a child, Herbert Dow was an inventor. He invented an incubator for his baby chicks. He invented a bicycle wheel. Everything he did with brine and bromine and chlorine and ultimately aluminum and magnesium and synthetic rubber, it's all part of that visionary, creative, never satisfied attitude.

00:01:41 If people like Herbert Dow hadn't had the imagination and the creativity and the drive to make things work and work right, our lives would be substantially more primitive than they are today.

00:01:57 Dad was an extraordinary man. He graduated from college when he was 19. He formed a company when he was 20, which was then considered a minor. With two employees and a small loan, he opened a tiny little company in a rented building downtown and stayed with the company until he died at age 84.

00:02:20 My dad's legacy was one of building a business that really is dedicated to providing the tools for science. That was his aim. That was his sole being, his sole driving force.

00:02:37 About 1920, when the company was approximately 18, 20 years old, he began to make trips to Europe and he began to take an interest in the history of science as represented by the old alchemist, who was a combination chemist, metallurgist, physician.

00:02:56 And he began to buy old, old prints and pictures. He built the collection for years and years and years. They have a real historic value because they really honor scientists of the past.

00:03:09 Carl Gerstein was such a warm human being who really cared for people and yet, at the same time, was a marvelous manager.

00:03:37 Carl Gerstein was part of a famous three-man team at Dow Chemical called the Troika within the company, who ran the company and really made it into the international, global company that it is today.

00:04:01 Carl Gerstein's impact, first on the Dow Company, became a leadership role in taking the American chemical industry and making it more and more internationally based than it ever would have become, I think, without Carl Gerstein.

00:04:22 He was a pioneer in the accounting area, which was his original area of specialization. He probably is up there smiling down and saying, gee, I thought of some of those things and I'm glad I did some of the things that I did.

00:04:43 The first thing that comes to mind about my great, great grandfather, E.I. DuPont, is his portrait, which used to be over the fireplace in my parents' home.

00:05:01 It was a dingy, old, smoky portrait and here was a man with a funky necktie peering out through the smoke.

00:05:10 In his childhood, at age 17, E.I. DuPont was apprenticed to Anton Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry.

00:05:21 As an apprentice, he was sent to the King of France powder mills at Essonne in France, and there E.I. DuPont learned how to make gunpowder by the most modern methods that Anton Lavoisier could devise, and he learned his lessons well.

00:05:43 One of the things that he learned at Essonne under Lavoisier was safety.

00:05:50 Now, the King of France had told Lavoisier, I don't want any of my subjects blown up, so you take your wife and you build a house for her right in the middle of the powder factory.

00:06:04 E.I. DuPont thought that was a dumb idea when he saw it, but if you look up the hill, there is his house right in the blast zone of the powder factory that he built.

00:06:17 That's number one safety. The boss takes all the risks that the workers take.

00:06:23 This guy saw an opportunity. He saw a business opportunity in making good quality gunpowder. He had guts.

00:06:35 Gene Garfield has never stinted in giving up himself, his time, sometimes his treasure, looking after people, working for him, but especially to the scientific community.

00:06:54 I first encountered his name in the rather famous paper that he wrote in Science Magazine outlining the project of science citation indexing.

00:07:04 It was one of the first major applications of computer technology to large-scale indexing in the bibliometric, in the library area.

00:07:13 Current Contents is how he got started, that little book you can put in your pocket which summarizes the whole week's literature in any field that you care to mention.

00:07:24 Certainly these bibliographic systems provide a level of coordination without which contemporary science would be impossible.

00:07:32 Gene Garfield had been interested for many, many years in having a newspaper of science.

00:07:36 It's just a wonderful hometown flavor. It makes us feel better about ourselves as being part of a common community.

00:07:44 Gene Garfield is someone who's just so devoted to his profession and to the community that the most important term to describe his attitude would be that of service.

00:07:55 How can I help? How can I make life richer, better, more effective?

00:08:01 First of all to professionals and then in turn to the world at large.

00:08:05 He was my uncle and I'm very proud of him, but the other thing I think about is the fact that he was very practical, a very practical chemical engineer.

00:08:16 I would say he was an early developer for Eastman Kodak of film.

00:08:22 He participated in the development of safety film, film that would not ignite.

00:08:28 He was very involved in finishes, say finishes for wood and a lot of things that we wouldn't see such as improved chemical processes.

00:08:37 He left the innovation of improved chemical manufacturing processes.

00:08:43 He left the Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology.

00:08:48 He left the chemical heritage, the Othmer Library of Chemical Technology.

00:08:53 He left the chemical heritage, the Othmer Library of Chemical History.

00:08:59 Mid was an excellent companion for Don.

00:09:02 They enjoyed traveling. They enjoyed being in the country at their country place in Cattersport.

00:09:08 He left a memory that I have of him that is very important of a very dynamic man who really I think was put on this earth to make a difference.

00:09:24 When you say the name Sidney Edelstein, he was a successful scientist.

00:09:29 He was a successful businessman, entrepreneur, and he was a scholar and a promoter of scholarship.

00:09:37 He was a delightful person full of anecdotes, full of earthy stories.

00:09:43 A man who was obviously though very sharp and very aware of things in the world and very aware of what he was doing and what he wanted to accomplish.

00:09:57 Everything you're wearing and I'm wearing right now was impacted by the research and the entrepreneurial activities of Sidney Edelstein.

00:10:07 Because he was the major person who brought science to the textile industry in this country.

00:10:14 What interests me about Sidney Edelstein is his background, his cultural background, his personal traits, his initiative.

00:10:23 How a Tennessee Jewish boy went to MIT to study chemical engineering at a time when this was virtually unheard of.

00:10:32 These are the kind of things that intrigue me.

00:10:35 Charisma. You're in the presence of somebody who is a very powerful personality, a very bright person, a person who asks probing and intelligent questions.

00:10:49 At the same time, perfectly gregarious and delightful person.

00:10:54 Arnold Beckman's playgrounds were the rivers and woods of Illinois, the attic of their home in a small shed out back.

00:11:02 Beckman was quite educated, receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from Caltech.

00:11:09 In the depths of the Great Depression, with the blessings and assistance of his wife, Arnold Beckman went into business and it all started with lemon juice.

00:11:18 The invention of the pH meter was enough to grow a business.

00:11:22 For $5 a month, Arnold Beckman rented a nine-foot section of a garage in Pasadena.

00:11:28 Two Caltech students working part-time were the workforce.

00:11:32 According to Arnold Beckman, there was no satisfactory substitute for excellence.

00:11:37 And as Beckman's instruments grew, his insistence on quality gave the company a great reputation.

00:11:43 Even if Arnold Beckman did not consider himself a chemist, he certainly earned their respect.

00:11:49 Inventing instruments to analyze blood samples, measure brain waves, examine pollutants at auto exhaust, control huge chemical refineries and even unravel the genetic secrets of DNA.

00:12:02 Arnold Beckman came a long way from a chemistry set and a shed in Illinois.

00:12:06 As I look back on my life, I'm happy that I have played a role, not necessarily a major, but at least played a role in the advancement of science.

00:12:16 And through the facilities which have been established, which will outlast me, I have a satisfactory feeling that my influence will extend beyond my own life.

00:12:29 These people represent the innovation, genius and creativity that brought us fundamental improvements in chemical knowledge, in the processes and in the products.

00:12:39 Their names and accomplishments and the names of thousands of other people who have given us the sum of our chemical heritage are preserved in this space.

00:12:48 We celebrate them all today.

00:13:18 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology