Transmutations - Spring 2008
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The Chemical Heritage
Foundation’s 25th Anniversary
Initiative TransmutationsN O . 3 � S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 Treasure the past Educate the present Inspire the future
CHF closing in on
$75 million goal!
(see page 14)
Tritton Brings Scholarlyand EntrepreneurialExperience to CHF
When Thomas R. Tritton decided to step down after 10 years
as president of Haverford College, CHF was not immediately
on his horizon. But the 60-year-old, who became CHF’s second
president on 1 January, was looking for an exciting new challenge.
“I’m really lucky and thrilled that I found it at CHF,” he says.
“When you’re called to a leadership position it’s because you
want to do something that’s beyond just your own aspirations.
It’s serving larger goals.”
Finding a successor for Arnold Thackray, who founded CHF
25 years ago, presented CHF’s presidential search committee
with its own challenge. Tritton was selected after an extensive
international search for someone with both scholarly and
entrepreneurial experience, a commitment to the chemical and
molecular sciences, and the drive to sustain and expand a
successful enterprise.
Vincent A. Calarco, chairman of CHF’s board of directors,
explains why the committee was impressed with Tritton:
“Scientist, scholar, inspiring leader, Tom Tritton is the right person
at the right time for CHF. His passion for chemistry, his energy, his
leadership will help CHF achieve its ambitious goals as a global
organization devoted to the progress and promise of science.”
Tritton says he has been interested in science for as long
as he can remember. While growing up in suburban Ohio, he
checked out every book on astronomy, geology, and chemistry
in the local library until there was nothing left for him to read.
As an undergraduate at Ohio Wesleyan University Tritton was
briefly tempted to study another of his main interests: music.
“Then I realized you can be an amateur musician, but you can’t
be an amateur scientist, so I majored in chemistry,” he says.
His first chemistry professor, Violet
Meek, was also the first scientist
Tritton had ever met: “She showed
me what it was like to be an actual
scientist, as opposed to someone
you read about in books or see on
television.” Tritton took her cue and
immersed himself in research. “It was
so encompassing and so consuming
of whatever powers and abilities you
had, you could grab them all and use
them to your fullest capacity,” he
reminisces.
Scientist,scholar,inspiringleader, TomTritton is theright personat the righttime for CHF.
c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 2
Phot
o by
Dou
glas
A. L
ocka
rd.
2
happened in the last 40 years in the molecular aspects of the
life sciences. Anyone who isn’t turned on by it probably had
a bad teacher.”
Tritton next became a postdoctoral fellow at Yale
University. After two years in the chemistry department he
switched over to the pharmacology department. “It was
there that I really got serious about cancer chemotherapy,
which became the centerpiece of most of what I did,” he
says. At the time the prevailing thought behind chemotherapy
involved killing cancer cells by attacking the cells’ DNA. “The
problem was that normal cells have DNA, too,” Tritton
explains, “and the drugs couldn’t tell the difference.”
His solution to this problem was to attack the surface of
the cells instead. It had been established that cancer cell
surfaces differed from those of normal cells. With this more
specific target, signal transduction mechanisms originating at
the cell surface could direct drug-induced repercussions from
a cell’s surface to its nucleus. “This developed into about
25 years of work by me and lots of other people,” he says,
“and a lot of modern drug development is based around that
general concept.”
Tritton graduated from Ohio Wesleyan
in 1969, during the Vietnam War. He had
received a low draft number, but he was
granted conscientious objector status
because of his Quaker beliefs. The draft
board let him search for his own alternative
service, which he found at a cancer
research laboratory at Boston University. “I
was very fortunate,” Tritton says. “During
those two years, I gained valuable research
experience and was able to continue to work
toward my Ph.D. degree.” He specialized
in cancer research because, as he asks,
“Who wouldn’t want to cure cancer, right?”
In 1973 Tritton received his doctorate
in biophysical chemistry. “My degrees are all
in chemistry,” he explains, “but my graduate
work and all subsequent work is on the life-
science side of chemistry.” His early career
coincided with revolutionary advances in
modern biological science: “So much has
Tritton’s
early career
coincided with
revolutionary
advances
in modern
biological
science.
c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 1 1
CHF’s new president, Thomas R. Tritton, third from right, and other staff membersmeet with leading representatives of PAI-NET, a Japanese organization dedicatedto best practices in the use of analytical instruments. Photo by Jennifer McCafferty.
3
� We have neared completing
renovations to CHF’s headquarters
in Philadelphia. New exhibition
facilities and a state-of-the-art
conference center, planned and
executed by world-renowned
architects and designers, open to
the public this fall. The article on
page 4 fully describes the project.
� CHF actively engaged audiences
throughout the country and the
world. New satellite chapters are
forming in New York City, North
Carolina’s Research Triangle,
Houston, and California’s Bay
Area. We have established our first international affilia-
tion with the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie in Paris
and are currently collaborating with the Society of
Chemical Industry in London. We are also furthering
CHF’s presence in Asia and the Middle East.
CHF has made significant progress over the last several
years. We are well established as the central place for the
central science. Our past accomplishments form the basis for
what needs to be achieved going forward. We remain
confident that, with your continued support, we will meet
our challenges successfully.
As always, CHF takes the responsibilities of managing
our operations and stewarding our resources very seriously.
As we cross geographic boundaries, we need to build on
our previous efforts and seek new ways to fulfill our mission
and to continue creating value for all of our audiences
and constituencies.
Thank you for all that you have done and will continue to
do to support CHF. You do make a difference! I look forward
to keeping you informed of our progress throughout the year.
Vincent A. CalarcoChairman of the Board
A Letter from the Chairman
The Chemical Heritage Foundation begins its 27th year in
2008. This is an exciting time for all of us—an occasion not
only to celebrate our achievements, but also to develop
a vision that will guide CHF’s next 25 years. As we look
ahead, it is clear we must find new ways to support our
unique mission, to treasure the past, educate the present,
and inspire the future, while building on the strengths that
have made us distinctive.
This last year has been a period of change for CHF:
� Thomas R. Tritton became our second president on
1 January, and Arnold Thackray, CHF’s founder and first
president, assumed the position of chancellor. Dr. Tritton is
uniquely positioned to lead CHF. You may read more about
him in the profile on page 1.
� CHF closed in on our 25th Anniversary Initiative goal of $75
million as a result of the generous support of so many of
our friends. For details, see page 14.
� We expanded the Center for Contemporary History and
Policy with programs in Environmental History and Policy
and Biomedical Sciences and Technologies.
� CHF hosted several new conferences, including the
High-Tech Manufacturing Workshop, the joint Wharton-
CHF Symposium on the Social Studies of Nanotechnology,
and the E. N. Brandt Oral History Conference.
� Chemical Heritage magazine and CHF’s Web site underwent
redesigns, and we also initiated use of the latest elec-
tronic media. CHF now hosts a podcast, Distillations, and
two blogs, Periodic Tabloid and The Collective Voice.
I urge you to go online and be a part of our expanded
Internet presence.Ph
oto
by D
ougl
as A
. Loc
kard
.
This fall CHF will unveil a state-of-
the-art museum and conference
center. The museum component
of this $20 million, 10,000-square-
foot project includes the Masao
Horiba Exhibit Hall, home to
the Arnold O. Beckman Permanent
Exhibit, and the Clifford C. Hach Gallery
for changing exhibitions. The extensively
renovated space has been four
years in the making and
brought together some of the
best minds in museum design.
Ralph Appelbaum Associates
(RAA), the world’s largest inter-
pretive museum design firm, and
Dagit•Saylor Architects worked hand
in hand with CHF staff to bring to life
Making Modernity, the major exhibi-
tion opening in the Horiba Exhibit
Hall. Making Modernity highlights
CHF’s unparalleled collection of
instrumentation, fine art, rare books,
artifacts, and archival materials.
As Robert G. W. Anderson, a
CHF board member and former
director of the British Museum,
describes it, the exhibition “tells an
intriguing story of human endeavor
and relates scientific pursuit with
those practical end products which
have transformed our lives.”
The unique nature of CHF’s
collection posed challenges for RAA.
The firm, whose notable projects
include the National Constitution
Center in Philadelphia and the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington, D.C., is known for
tackling specialized subjects and
Making Modernity
highlights CHF’s
unparalleled
collection of
instrumentation,
fine art, rare books,
artifacts, and
archival materials.
New MuseumConference
4
Above: Erin McLeary, center, reviews exhibition fabrication with Appelbaum designers and fellow CHF staff members. Photo by Tommy Matthews. Left: A Kipp generator, ca. 1900. Photo by Gregory Tobias.
extracting stories from objects. But chemistry’s long, complex
history does not make for a simple narrative, and the objects
and documents of scientific heritage can be visually dull.
Still, CHF’s curators and historians insisted that the
collection tell its own story of vital significance. In Making
Modernity, science drives the tale. The education level of CHF’s
typical visitor allowed RAA to set a high bar for the collection’s
interpretation. RAA project director Tim Ventimiglia says,
“The project is very focused, and we’re excited about the
serious level of the scholarship.”
Making Modernity’s 24 sections illustrate 8 thematic
arcs ranging from chemistry’s origins to the role science plays
in the modern world. Each section presents a story based
on a person or group of people and displays items that
convey the history of a given innovation or idea. The section
entitled “Chemistry and the Public Good,” for example, features
scientists who became public advocates during the
Industrial Revolution. It includes Louis Pasteur’s 1865 letter
upbraiding French winemakers for not adopting pasteuriza-
tion, as well as photographs, journals, and popular maga-
zines from the period.
Above: The two-story Masao Horiba Exhibit Hall is under construction. Top: A Bakelite billiard ball demonstrates the use of synthetic materials in the early 20th century. Photos by Gregory Tobias.
The extensively
renovated space
has been four
years in the
making and
brought together
some of the
best minds in
museum design.
Center
5
AND
6
Other sections expose the chemistry
behind Isaac Newton’s work, early dyes,
Bunsen burners, thermometers, Geiger
counters, computers, fuel cells, bucky-
balls, and much more. They are
arranged to help visitors draw connections between
different scientific insights and eras. For instance, the
area devoted to synthetics pairs a vitrine about
celluloid, an artificial compound made in part from natu-
ral matter, with one about Bakelite, a completely artificial
material. The synthetics story continues with nylon, which
revolutionized the textile industry in the mid-20th century,
and GORE-TEX, a membrane used today with equal success
in outerwear and surgical implants.
Because science is ever-evolving,
Making Modernity was designed to
allow a degree of flexibility. Peter Saylor,
principal architect at Dagit•Saylor,
constantly kept the presentation of CHF’s
collection in mind as he plotted the
renovation of the 1865 wing of CHF’s
headquarters. He describes the plan
as “a contemporary intervention into
a classic building for a project where
a collection of world-class artifacts
is integral to the architecture. It
gives CHF a cutting-edge way to
deliver a history which is one of
rapid change.”
The Hach Gallery, the space
devoted to science-themed rotat-
ing exhibitions, also allows for
change. Because CHF has strong
relationships with the Smithsonian
and other loaning institutions, it was
important to reserve room for temporary
installations that offer something new to
returning visitors. According to Erin
McLeary, a curator at CHF, the space “will
also function as a recruitment
tool for future donations and
loans. Visitors will come to think
of us as the appropriate stew-
ards for artifacts that they
themselves own.”
The Hach Gallery’s first
exhibition, Molecules That
Matter, was developed by
CHF in collaboration with
the Frances Young Tang
Teaching Museum and
Art Gallery at Skidmore
College. The exhibition illustrates the significance
of 10 well-known molecules, each associated with one
decade of the 20th century and explored through molecular
CHF has high
expectations of
its innovative
new galleries
and their
potential
foothold
in the world
of science
museums.
Trading cards helped advertise celluloid products in the late 19th century. Photos by Gregory Tobias.
7
models, contemporary art, everyday
objects, and historical artifacts. Other
exhibitions scheduled to appear in the
Hach Gallery examine the chemistry of
plants, the history of microscopes, and
a selection of rare books.
CHF has high expectations of its
innovative new galleries and their
potential foothold in the world of
science museums. The team behind
CHF’s exhibitions fully expects them
to draw both a scientifically informed
audience and a larger, more general
crowd. To learn more about the project
and events surrounding the opening, or to
read The Collective Voice, a blog by Making Modernity’s
curators, please visit www.chemheritage.org.
The E. I. du Pont Conference Center features an auditorium and
six meeting rooms, three with prime views of Philadelphia’s
historic district and three overlooking CHF’s new gallery
space. Able to accommodate up to 250 people, the center
will be available to groups for a variety of functions beginning
in October.
Clockwise, from top: Louis Pasteur’s 1865 letter to French winemakers aboutpasteurization; Fisher Scientific International Collection. Geologic samples offluorite, left, and tourmaline. A copper still used to remove impurities and toconcentrate essential oils and spirits. Photos by Gregory Tobias.
Since 1988 the Trusts has chronicled the Pew scholars’
approaches to scientific inquiry through more than 200 oral
histories, building one of the most complete oral history
archives of modern American biomedical research. These
interviews offer interpretations of the activities of biomedical
innovation, including social networks and patterns of
patronage, and describe the significance of the Pew scholars
program to its participants’ development as scientists.
The accumulation of biomedical knowledge and its
applications in diagnosis, imaging, and therapeutics over the
last 30 years is staggering. Universities, governments, and
private foundations have underwritten a rapid rise in the
number of biomedical scientists, journals, disciplines, sub-
disciplines, and interdisciplinary programs and institutions.
Such exponential growth poses special challenges for poli-
cy makers and the general public. It also makes the biomed-
ical sciences ripe for oral history, as does the fact that over
90 percent of biomedical scientists who have ever lived are
still alive today.
In 2005 CHF created the Center for
Contemporary History and Policy to provide
historical perspective and analytical in-
sight to contemporary science-related
issues. The center’s Oral History Program
quickly became its largest initiative, with
a collection that has come to include over
350 interviews.
Now CHF has forged a unique part-
nership with The Pew Charitable Trusts to
establish the Pew Oral History Project.
This joint venture brings the oral history
expertise of the Center for Contemporary
History and Policy to the Pew Scholars
Program in the Biomedical Sciences,
which supports early-career scientists
doing basic biomedical research with the
potential to contribute new knowledge
about human disease and its treatment.8
CHF
has forged
a unique
partnership
with The Pew
Charitable
Trusts.
9
and if these histories can convey some of that—the fun,
the infinite patience required, the unexpected ‘eureka’
moments, and the thought processes that ultimately lead to
discoveries—they more than prove their value.”
The first goal of the new Pew-CHF initiative is the transfer
of existing Pew oral histories into CHF’s collection. Transcripts,
audio recordings, and other related materials are being
made accessible to CHF staff historians and researchers.
Once they have been evaluated and elements such as abstracts
and detailed indices added, the oral histories will be bound
and placed in CHF’s Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer
Library of Chemical History for public and
academic use.
Second, CHF and the Trusts are collaborat-
ing on conducting and processing new oral
histories with Pew scholars. These interviews
are an important component in perpetuat-
ing the Trusts’ mission of preserving the
scholars’ experiences for future generations.
To implement this part of the project, CHF
hired two new staff members: David Caruso
and Hilary Domush now serve as the manager
and assistant, respectively, of the Biomedical
Sciences and Technologies Program of the
Center for Contemporary History and Policy.
Caruso and Domush are working with the Pew
scholars themselves, the national advisory
committee of the Pew Scholars Program, and
the Center for the Health Professions at the
University of California, San Francisco, to
carry out the latest oral histories.
The project will also undertake longitudi-
nal studies of a select subset of Pew scholars
20 years after their graduation from the pro-
gram, to coincide with the 20th anniversary
of the national advisory committee’s decision
to initiate oral histories. Reinterviewing these
scholars, as well as members of the program’s
national advisory committee, will illustrate
Carefully
researched,
recorded, and
transcribed
interviews
reveal a side
of research
that may
not appear in
the published
record.
Hilary Domush and David Caruso of CHF’s Biomedical Sciences and Technologies Program look over completed oral histories. Photo by Jennifer McCafferty.
Oral histories are an innovative
tool for preserving and promoting an
understanding of the biomedical sci-
ences. Carefully re-searched,
recorded, and transcribed interviews
with biomedical scientists reveal a
side of research that may not appear
in the published record of scientific
achievement, as electronic methods
of documenting findings and other
changes in how scientists commu-
nicate mean that ever less primary
source material is saved for future
analysis. Oral histories also capture
scientists’ perspectives on their
own work, which are no longer
found in personal papers or written
correspondence.
As Cheryl Rusten, the managing
officer of the Pew scholars program,
puts it, “Working in the biomedical
sciences is definitely an adventure,
The accumulation
of biomedical
knowledge
over the last
30 years is
staggering.
the long-term impact of the program on
the scholars and capture the evolution of
the program itself. These oral histories
will also shed new light on interpreting
the past, present, and future of the bio-
medical sciences.
Finally, the Pew-CHF partnership
increases outreach and use of the com-
bined oral history collection in several
significant ways, including a fellowship
focused on oral history interpretation and
the dissemination of publications featur-
ing Pew scholars. CHF is also cataloging
each of the oral histories into systems
accessed by research libraries around the
world, digitizing audio archives and mak-
ing portions of interviews available
online, and developing Web pages to
highlight interviewees.
10
Reaching, educating, and inspiring the next generations
of scientists and scholars is the ultimate goal shared
by CHF and The Pew Charitable Trusts in forming this
exciting partnership. “Too often the history of science is an
afterthought, lost in the thrill of experiments and the discovery
of new knowledge,” Caruso says. “The Pew Charitable Trusts,
in conjunction with CHF, is making sure that the stories of
some of the nation’s most accomplished biomedical
researchers will not be relegated to obscurity, but will play
a prominent role in contemporary and future analyses of the
biomedical sciences and its policy implications.”
Reaching,
educating,
and inspiring
the next
generations
of scientists
and scholars
is the
ultimate goal.
The oral histories generated by the Pew-CHF initiative will be housed inCHF’s Othmer Library of Chemical History and made accessible to historiansand researchers. Photo by Catherine Tighe.
11
Tritton continued this work when he moved
to the University of Vermont in 1985. The Vermont
Comprehensive Cancer Center asked him to
serve as a deputy director as well as a professor
of pharmacology, beginning what Tritton jokes
was a “gradual deterioration” into administrative
roles. Several years later the university offered
him the position of vice provost, which he initially
refused for the sake of his research.
“They said, ‘Just do it for one year because
we really need you to do it right now,’” Tritton
recounts. “I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it for one year.’
That turned into six years. But I was able to maintain my
research momentum and do that at the same time. I was
working with a good group of people.”
When Tritton first received a call about Haverford
College’s presidential search, his projection of its feasibility
was again slightly off: “I said, ‘It’s a wonderful institution,
and I’d be happy to look at it, but I’m sure it won’t go anywhere.’
I said those exact words, and well, so much for my prediction.”
In 1997 Tritton became the 12th president of Haverford,
the oldest institution of higher learning with Quaker roots in
North America and one of the nation’s leading liberal arts
colleges. He carried on his lifelong commitment to scholarship
by writing and by teaching a course in the biology department
every academic year. Tritton’s 10 years of leadership at
Haverford were financially rewarding for the
school, which saw its endowment increase by
more than $250 million, annual giving more than
double, and its alumni giving rate rise to consis-
tently over 50 percent.
In addition to completing Haverford’s most
successful capital campaign, Tritton’s tenure will
also be remembered for the creation of three
new interdisciplinary academic centers: the John
B. Hurford Humanities Center, which celebrates
the arts and philosophy; the Center for Peace
and Global Citizenship, which cultivates Quaker
values of nonviolence and social justice; and the
Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences
Center, where, for the first time, the departments of astrono-
my, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics,
physics, and psychology are in one facility, promoting an
exceptional educational experience for students.
When Tritton left Haverford last summer, he immediately
headed to Harvard University as a visiting professor and
president in residence of the Graduate School of Education.
There he designed a new course on social justice and wrote
and taught about leadership and the college presidency. “We
had master’s and doctoral students who were preparing
themselves to be the next generation of leaders in higher
education,” he says. “It’s really helpful for them to have
someone around who’s led an institution.”
When asked how he feels about leading CHF, Tritton claims
that “thrilled” is not an overstatement. “I am enormously
excited to be returning to my roots as a scientist,” he
explains. “My life has been devoted to education, and the
CHF position offers a new way to continue that calling in
directions that are both original and challenging.”
He describes CHF as a place of such “radical possibility”
that it lends a pleasant complexity to his early planning for
the future. “One of the challenges is trying to figure out, of
the many things we can do, what are the things we do best,”
he says. “CHF has accomplished a lot, and there’s no upward
bound to what we can achieve.”
Tritton Brings Experience to CHF
c o n t i n u e d f r o m p a g e 2CHF has
accomplished
a lot, and
there’s no
upward
bound to
what we
can achieve.
Thomas R. Tritton addresses a crowd in CHF’s Ullyot Meeting Hall.Photo by Douglas A. Lockard.
The name Robert W. Gore is synonymous
with innovation. Gore’s achievements as a
technologist, entrepreneur, and executive
are diverse, far-reaching, and widely
recognized. His long and successful
career of developing new products, as well
as new markets and business strategies,
began more than four decades ago, and
his understanding and appreciation of the
process of materials innovation has only
deepened in years since.
“A brilliant innovator with a remark-
able focus to business essentials, Bob
Gore not only made the key discoveries
that turned a fledgling family enterprise
into a global leader,” says Arnold
Thackray, CHF’s chancellor. “He also institutionalized a man-
agement philosophy that perennially places W. L. Gore and
Associates on the list of best places to work, both in the
United States and overseas.”
When Gore was a chemical engineering student at the
University of Delaware, his father, Wilbert L. Gore, was a
DuPont scientist who often brought new materials home to
conduct his own experiments. In 1957 Gore’s father was
working with the synthetic substance polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE), one form of DuPont’s Teflon. Impressed by PTFE’s
potential, the elder Gore tried to make a ribbon of insulated
multistrand electrical wire by feeding several wires and PTFE
powder between two rolls and extruding the wires covered
with the compressed powder. Unfortunately the wire ribbon
had electrical flaws because the powder coating was uneven.
When his father shared the details of the PTFE experiment
with him, Gore suggested putting the tape through the rolls
around the wire instead. After sleeping on it, his father agreed
to try. The wire proved electrically sound, and a family
enterprise was formed.
In 1958, operating out of their basement, the Gores
launched the company’s first product line of Teflon-insulated
electronic wires and cables. Three years later, W. L. Gore
and Associates moved out of the basement and into its first
facility in Newark, Delaware. In 1963 the firm received its
first patent. Gore joined the family business full time that
year, after earning a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
About Robert W. Gore
12
Robert W. Gore demonstrates the expansion of PTFE in 1982.Courtesy of W. L. Gore and Associates.
A brilliant
innovator with
a remarkable
focus to
business
essentials.
Over the next five years, Gore and Associates established
a presence in Arizona, West Germany, Scotland, and Japan.
Cable was its main business, but in the late 1960s changes
in the market prompted the company to look for a new prod-
uct. Thinking once more of tape, Gore returned to the lab in
1969 and decided to capitalize on a known quality of unsin-
tered PTFE tape: it could be stretched slightly to lengthen it
without apparently changing its width or thickness, thereby
creating more product with less material.
Gore heated the PTFE tape to near its melting point, then
took it out of the oven and began stretching it: “When I
stretched it slowly, it crumbled almost immediately. I was
very frustrated. I said, ‘If it won’t stretch slowly, let’s try it
faster.’ So I took the tape out of the oven and gave it a quick
jerk, and the thing stretched out 1000 percent! I couldn’t
believe it!” The PTFE now had a very fine porous structure,
yet it was as strong as the original tape with only one-tenth
the amount of material per unit.
Gore had hit a synthetics milestone. The stretched
PTFE formed a fabric with holes large enough for body heat
and moisture to escape but small enough to
deflect raindrops. After much development,
the company experienced a period of explo-
sive growth as the breathable, waterproof,
and windproof fabric found its way into sport-
ing apparel, space suits, filtration systems,
and artificial arteries. Gore & Associates
received the patent for what would be known
worldwide as GORE-TEX in 1976, the same
year Gore succeeded his father as president
and CEO.
Today Gore and Associates’ product offerings
span such diverse business segments as dental
floss, guitar strings, fiber optics, fuel cell
components, military and architectural fabrics,
surgical implants and instruments. In addition to
its focus on materials innovation, the
company, which employs approximately 8,000
people in more than 45 locations worldwide,
developed an innovative management style
known as the lattice system.
“The fundamental idea of the lattice is individual free-
dom,” Gore explains. “We’re all adults. As long as we’re con-
tributing to the enterprise, we don’t need written policies.”
To date all Gore and Associates employees are considered
associates, and there are no formal lines of reporting or
traditional bosses. Leaders known as sponsors emerge from
multidisciplined teams. And each facility houses only 200
employees, so that all associates have easy access to one
another.
It is Gore’s expertise in innovation that prompted his
sponsorship of a new case studies program in CHF’s Center
for Contemporary History and Policy. By 2009 the Gore
program will generate at least 15 in-depth case studies that
elaborate on those elements that make some innovations
succeed and others fail—the culture of a specific institution,
the experience of an individual, the availability of labor and
capital, the transfer of ideas across scientific disciplines, and
other factors.
CHF will publish the studies, which are being researched
and written by program managers in the Center for Contem-
porary History and Policy and holders of the
Robert W. Gore Fellowship in Materials
Innovation, a year-long program for advanced
Ph.D. students in economics, sociology, or the
history of science. The cases intentionally range
from established firms to startups and include
examples of extra-firm innovation. They are lim-
ited to breakthroughs made in the last 30 years.
Beyond pointing to the economic growth
and social change spurred by new materials,
the studies—with Gore as sponsor and
central inspiration—will produce a greater
understanding of the innovation process in
order to help industry leaders better organize
for successful innovation, allow governments
to better prepare for financial and social
impacts, and offer insights to a public calling
for materials innovation that generates environ-
mental benefits as well as economic growth.
The breathable,
waterproof,
windproof
fabric found
its way into
sporting apparel,
space suits,
filtration
systems,
and artificial
arteries.
13
14
Treasure the past Educate the present Inspire the future&25th Anniversary InitiativeProgressevents
25
33.4
25
21
25 25
17.7
72.175
0
5
10
15
20
Fund
s (m
illio
ns)
Endowment Capital Programs TOTAL
Funding Use
GoalRaised
M O V I N G T O W A R D O U R G O A L
A Note from the ChancellorThis note brings news of our tremendous progress on CHF's 25th Anniversary
Initiative. We recently received a significant a gift of $7.5 million from an
anonymous donor. The donor’s intent with such a generous gift was not
just to get us to the campaign goal of $75 million but to challenge
CHF to soar past the goal, making this the most successful
campaign in our history.
However, the real news cannot be caught in the
numbers, good though they are. The real news is of CHF as
a vibrant, growing, global organization uniquely able to
perform the vital service of recording and making known
the greatest human adventure ever. That adventure begins with
Bronze and Iron Age technology and leads on through Chinese,
Indian, and Arabic contributions to modern science. Western sci-
ence in its turn is becoming truly global: science, innovation, and technology
are now global themes, and they are keys to the health and material well-
being of the whole of humanity. How splendid then that CHF today, after its
first quarter century, enjoys the programs, the facilities, the staff, and the
leadership to treasure the past, educate the present, and inspire the
future—to bring encouragement to young people, resources to educators,
perspective to policy discussions, and balance to public understanding.
With our new challenge in place, we need your help. So please, give
generously as we head down the home stretch. Your support will enable
CHF's talented new president, Tom Tritton, and his able colleagues to
advance CHF's agendas and thus to render more extraordinary the future of
the chemical and molecular sciences.
Arnold ThackrayChancellor
1515
Clockwise, from top left: Nobel laureate Yuan Tseh Lee, CHF’s 2008 Othmer GoldMedalist, surrounded by Taiwanese high-school students. Photo courtesy of Hu-Wei SeniorHigh School, Taiwan. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and chair of Biocon, discussedmodern pharmaceuticals on an episode of CHF’s weekly podcast, Distillations.Photo courtesy of Biocon, Ltd. Members of the International Union of Pure and AppliedChemistry’s Committee on Chemistry Education came from all over the world to meet at CHF. Photo by Javier Garcia. CHF’s development officer for special projects,Richard Ulrych, second from left, attends PITTCON 2008 with, from left, TsuguoSawada, Kenji Kojima, and Takeshi Murayama. Photo by Peter Cutts. CHF annually hosts scholars from around the globe; this year they include, from left, Emily Pawley,Gabriele Ferrario, Slawomir Lotysz, and Dominique Tobbell. Photo by Douglas A. Lockard.
Chemical Heritage Foundation315 Chestnut StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19106
Treasure t h e p a s tEducate t h e p r e s e n t
Inspire t h e f u t u r e
N O N P R O F I TO R G A N I Z AT I O NU . S . P O S TA G E
P A I DP H I L A D E L P H I A , PAP E R M I T N O . 5 4 6 0
Transmutations INTHISISSUE
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CHF Welcomes New President
Museum and Conference Center Update
Pew Oral History Project
Progress & Events
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