| The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened its doors to its first students on January 15, 1795. The beginning of Chemistry at Chapel Hill dates back to 1818, with the hiring of the first Professor of Chemistry. The central person in the history of the department was Francis P. Venable, who came to Chapel Hill in 1880. |
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| Venable served Chapel Hill for fifty years, and lead the University through difficult times as its President from 1900 - 1914. He also served as President of the American Chemical Society during this period of time in 1905. Venable was appointed to the first endowed Professorship of the University, the Mary Ann Smith Professorship, in 1893, and in 1918, became one of the first Kenan Professors. |
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| After taking residence in the basement of old Playmakers' Theatre and later in Person Hall, Chemistry earned its own quarters. The first building at Chapel Hill to be built with a state appropriation was Chemistry Hall (now known as Howell Hall) completed in 1905. The rapid expansion of the chemistry programs led to the construction of Venable Hall in the 1920's, and an addition to Venable Hall in the 1950's. |
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| The 1970's added Kenan laboratories to the Chemistry complex as a state-of-the-art research facility, soon to be followed by Morehead Laboratories in the 1980's, which is home to our undergraduate laboratory program. Currently underway is the construction of a new series of buildings, known as the "Science Complex", which will bring unprecedented facilities for collaborative scientific research to our campus. |
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| The first Ph.D. degree in Chemistry was awarded in 1883 to one of Venable's students, and to date, more than 1200 Ph.D. degrees and 480 M.S. and M.A. degrees have been awarded, making UNC Chapel Hill one of the premier chemistry graduate educational program in the nation. The first official Chemistry undergraduate degree was awarded in 1907, although many students of Chemistry received undergraduate degrees dating back to the mid 1800's. To date, greater than 4700 undergraduate degrees in Chemistry have been awarded. The local Rho chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma, one of the oldest chapters of this national chemistry fraternity in the nation, was initiated on May 6, 1912. The Rho chapter continues today as one of the largest and most active chapters of National Alpha Chi Sigma (coed) fraternity. |
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| A tradition of collaborative discovery characteristic of our department dates back to Francis Venable. In 1893, Venable, together with two undergraduate students, William Rand Kenan, Jr. and later, Thomas Clarke, assisted former undergraduate student, John Motley Morehead in identification as calcium carbide (Ca2C) a material Morehead had prepared by electrolysis of calcium oxide, aluminum oxide, and carbon. This discovery had tremendous commercial importance, and led to the development of acetylene and the founding of Union Carbide. |
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Joseph Ezekiel Pogue, Jr. |
| The philanthropy of John Motley Morehead and William Rand Kenan, Jr., and fortunes associated with this discovery, have greatly benefited the department and the University. It is noteworthy that the third major donor to the University, Joseph Ezekiel Pogue, Jr., was also a chemistry student, and received an A.B. degree in 1906 and an M.S. degree in 1907. |
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Dr. Venable in later years |
| Venable has as his legacy, the distinction in research, teaching, and service of the current members of this department. Notable discoveries and recent patents by current members of the department are summarized in our research section. |
The information on this page has been extracted from the book about the history of our department, "Carolina Chemists - Sketches from Chapel Hill", by Professor Maurice Bursey, The University of North Carolina Press (1982).
Department of Chemistry
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Last Updated:
July 24, 2007
© 2007 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Content Manager: chemcontent@unc.edu |