Name: | Ira Remsen |
Occupation: | Entrepreneur |
Gender: | Male |
Birth Day: | February 10, 1846 |
Death Date: | Mar 4, 1927 (age 81) |
Age: | Aged 81 |
Country: | United States |
Zodiac Sign: | Aquarius |
Ira Remsen
Trivia
Does Ira Remsen Dead or Alive?
As per our current Database, Ira Remsen died on Mar 4, 1927 (age 81).
Physique
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Before Fame
He earned a medical degree to satisfy his family, but then moved to Germany to pursue his true passion in chemistry.
Biography
Biography Timeline
Ira Remsen was born in New York City and earned an M.D. from the New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1865. Remsen subsequently studied chemistry in Germany, studying under chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig, receiving a PhD from University of Göttingen in 1870. In 1872, after researching pure chemistry at University of Tübingen, Remsen returned to the United States and became a professor at Williams College, where he wrote the popular text Theoretical Chemistry. Remsen’s book and reputation brought him to the attention of Daniel Coit Gilman, who invited him to become one of the original faculty of Johns Hopkins University. Remsen accepted and founded the department of chemistry there, overseeing his own laboratory. In 1879 Remsen founded the American Chemical Journal, which he edited for 35 years.
In 1879 Fahlberg, working with Remsen in a post-doctoral capacity, made an accidental discovery that changed Remsen’s career. Eating rolls at dinner after a long day in the lab researching coal tar derivatives, Fahlberg noticed that the rolls tasted initially sweet but then bitter. Since his wife tasted nothing strange about the rolls, Fahlberg tasted his fingers and noticed that the bitter taste was probably from one of the chemicals in his lab. The next day at his lab he tasted the chemicals that he had been working with the previous day and discovered that it was the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide he had tasted the previous evening. He named the substance saccharin and he and his research partner Remsen published their finding in 1880. Later Remsen became angry after Fahlberg, in patenting saccharin, claimed that he alone had discovered saccharin. Remsen had no interest in the commercial success of saccharin, from which Fahlberg profited, but he was incensed at the perceived dishonesty of not crediting him as the head of the laboratory.
In 1901 Remsen was appointed the president of Johns Hopkins, where he proceeded to found a School of Engineering and helped establish the school as a research university. He introduced many of the German laboratory techniques he had learned and wrote several important chemistry textbooks. In 1912 he stepped down as president, due to ill health, and retired to Carmel, California.
In 1923 he was awarded the Priestley medal. He died on March 4, 1927.
After his death, the new chemistry building, completed in 1924, was named after him at Johns Hopkins. His ashes are located behind a plaque in Remsen Hall; he is the only person buried on campus.
In 1946, to commemorate the centenary of Remsen, the Maryland chapter of the American Chemical Society, began awarding the Remsen award, in his honor. Awardees are frequently of the highest caliber, and included a sequence of 16 Nobel laureates between 1950 and 1980.
His Baltimore house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
🎂 Upcoming Birthday
Currently, Ira Remsen is 175 years, 8 months and 16 days old. Ira Remsen will celebrate 176th birthday on a Thursday 10th of February 2022.
Find out about Ira Remsen birthday activities in timeline view here.
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