Oral history interview with Herbert Morawetz
- 1986-Apr-01
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.In this interview, Herbert Morawetz traces his early life prior to leaving Czechoslovakia on the Nazi invasion and resettling in Canada, where he studied chemical engineering at the University of Toronto. He describes his introduction to industrial research work and his consequent Ph.D. study at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and late postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Morawetz outlines the circumstances of his appointment to the faculty at Brooklyn and his research and scholarly activities there. During the course of the interview Morawetz reflects on some of his graduate students, on the future of polymer education, and on international scientific collaboration.
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About the Interviewer
James J. Bohning was professor emeritus of chemistry at Wilkes University, where he had been a faculty member from 1959 to 1990. He served there as chemistry department chair from 1970 to 1986 and environmental science department chair from 1987 to 1990. Bohning was chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry in 1986; he received the division’s Outstanding Paper Award in 1989 and presented more than forty papers at national meetings of the society. Bohning was on the advisory committee of the society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program from its inception in 1992 through 2001 and is currently a consultant to the committee. He developed the oral history program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and he was CHF’s director of oral history from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Bohning was a science writer for the News Service group of the American Chemical Society. In May 2005, he received the Joseph Priestley Service Award from the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. Bohning passed away in September 2011.
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Interviewee biographical information
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Education
| Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
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| 1942 | University of Toronto | BASc | Chemical Engineering |
| 1943 | University of Toronto | MASc | Chemical Engineering |
| 1950 | Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn | PhD | Chemistry |
Professional Experience
Bakelite Company
- 1945 to 1949 Research Chemist
Harvard Medical School
- 1950 to 1951 N.I.H. Fellow
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
- 1951 to 1953 Assistant Professor of Chemistry
- 1953 to 1958 Associate Professor
- 1958 to 1981 Professor
- 1981 to 1986 Institute Professor
- 1986 Institute Professor Emeritus
Honors
| Year(s) | Award |
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| 1966 to 1967 | N. I. H. Fellow, Universities of Naples and Rome |
| 1980 | Centennial Scholar, Case Western Reserve University |
| 1984 | Whitby Memorial Lecturer, University of Akron |
| 1985 | Polymer Chemistry Award, American Chemical Society |
Cite as
Herbert Morawetz, interviewed by James J. Bohning in Polytechnic Institute of New York on April 1, 1986. Philadelphia: Science History Institute, n.d. Oral History Transcript 0032. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/q811kk726.
This citation is automatically generated and may contain errors.
The published version of the transcript may diverge from the interview audio due to edits to the transcript made by staff of the Center for Oral History, often at the request of the interviewee, during the transcript review process.