One-Of-A-Kind Award Goes To Chemist William Jensen

With the exception of the Smithsonian Museum, McMicken College houses the largest collection of artifacts related to the history of chemistry in the United States. His management and development of the priceless Oesper Collections

in the History of Chemistry is one reason Professor William Jensen has been selected winner of the 2005 Edelstein Award in the History of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society.

The only international honor dedicated to this field, it was originally known as the Dexter Award but was renamed for the late Sidney M. Edelstein, who endowed it in 1956 when the first recipient was UC's Ralph E. Oesper. Jensen is the 48th to be recognized with the honor that has gone to scholars from Great Britain, France, Holland, Hungary, Mexico, and Germany.

The Oesper Collections with which he works contain rare books and journals spanning the 16th through the 20th centuries, a print and photo collection, and a museum of historical chemical equipment. Jensen's additional accomplishments include his 1988 founding and subsequent editorship of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, the only American journal devoted to the topic. In addition, he has written more than 150 papers and reviews in the fields of inorganic chemistry, chemical education, and the history of chemistry and has authored two books, with a third in the final stages of completion.

He said of the award that will be presented at a symposium to be held in his honor during the August meeting of the American Chemical Society, “I am particularly pleased to receive this award because of the association with its first recipient, the late Ralph Oesper. It is not only a tribute to my own activities in the history of chemistry, but also a tribute to Oesper's legacy to both the department of chemistry and the University of Cincinnati.”