Charles Frederick Chandler, 1836-1925
Although chemistry at Columbia University traces its roots back to 1754, it is only with the arrival of Charles Frederick Chandler in 1864, coinciding with the opening of the School of Mines, that one first recognizes the beginnings of a modern chemistry department at Columbia. Chandler received his Ph.D. with Friedrich W¦hler at the University of G¦ttingen.Û On his return to the United States in 1856, he received an invitation from Professor Charles Joy to help develop a chemical laboratory at Union College in Schenectady, NY.Û When Chandler arrived he found that no provision had been made for his salary, so he accepted the $400 budgeted for janitorial services and became "janitor assistant". When Joy was called to Columbia in 1857, the young janitor became the professor of chemistry. Following Joy in 1864, Chandler left Union College for New York City to help organize the School of Mines at Columbia. At the age of 27, he began a 54-year tenure with Columbia that included positions as professor of chemistry and dean of the School of Mines, the School of Pharmacy, and the Medical School.

As an exceptional teacher, Chandler attracted numerous students to the various schools of Columbia University. His influence on chemical research and the chemical industry, as passed on through his students, is incalculable. For many years, he and his brother, William H. Chandler of Lehigh University, edited The American Chemist, a journal devoted to applied chemistry. Chandler was one of the founders of the American Chemical Society and twice served as its president.

As president of the Health Department of New York City, Chandler regulated supplies of natural gas, kerosene, city water and milk, and the slaughter houses of the city. Chandler's tenure was marked by unprecedented action against threats to public health. As a health officer, he established a proper system of plumbing in houses and introduced the system of visiting physicians, free vaccination, and the care of contagious diseases in special hospitals.

As an industrial chemist, Chandler was a pioneer in the field of sugar refining, gas manufacture, petroleum refining, photography, and dyeing and was an advisor and consultant to industry and local government. He was one of the earliest advocates of the cooperation between science and industry and was recognized for his valuable contributions to applied chemistry by the award of The Perkin Medal in 1920.

As a university administrator, Chandler's efforts to attract excellent young faculty to Columbia were so successful that its chemistry department was in the forefront of American universities.

Marston Taylor Bogert, 1868-1954
Substantive research in modern organic chemistry began at Columbia with Marston T. Bogert.Û With only a bachelor's degree from Columbia College in 1890 and no formal training in organic chemistry, Bogert became the first professor of organic chemistry at Columbia and an internationally known chemist. He published more than 500 scientific papers during a career that spanned half a century. His interest in synthetic organic chemistry included the study of quinazolines and thiazoles, essential oils, terpenes, alkaloids, vitamins, arsenicals, and drugs. Bogert was one of a small group of pioneering organic chemists who greatly influenced the growth of the chemical industry in the United States.

Henry Clapp Sherman, 1875-1955
After receiving an M.S. degree in 1896 and a Ph.D. in 1897 from Columbia University, Henry C. Sherman joined his alma mater as a lecturer and was given charge of a new course on quantitative organic analysis. This led to the publication of his first book Methods of Organic Analysis, which he published at age 28. One of Sherman's first areas of research was the investigation of the requirements in humans for calcium, phosphorus, iron, and protein. By 1907, when he became professor of chemistry, he proved that digestive enzymes were proteins.Û In 1920, Sherman began to study vitamins and developed biological assay methods for vitamin A, thiamine, ascorbic acid, and riboflavin.

During World War II, Sherman left Columbia to serve as the chief of the Bureau of Human Nutrition at the Department of Agriculture. Several years later, he became the chairman of the Commission of Dietary Allowances of the National Research Council. In his work with animals, he established that old age could be postponed by a diet rich in "protective foods" such as fruits, vegetables, and milk. Sherman published more than 200 original research papers, as well as several monographs and textbooks.

John Maurice Nelson, 1876-1965
After returning from studying with Wilhelm Ostwald in Germany, John M. Nelson received his Ph.D. under Marston T. Bogert. He, along with a Columbia University colleague K. George Falk, applied the electronic theory of valence to covalent bonds. They suggested that the direction the electron moves would depend on the relative position of the elements in the periodic table. This pioneering work offered an explanation for properties of organic compounds that had previously been a mystery.

Nelson, with Harold Fales, uncovered the effect of neutral salts on hydrogen ion activity, which they found by direct electrometric measurement and by their effect on the rate of hydrolysis of sucrose. Much of Nelson's research involved the study of the nature of invertase, which catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose. His discovery that the addition of sodium chloride increases the hydrogen ion activity was the first documented case of the salt effect. He was also the first to study the kinetics of enzyme inhibition before it was ever identified as such.

Nelson is said to have been an excellent lecturer for the undergraduate organic course for premedical students given in the grand lecture hall. But it was his course for the first-year graduate students on the theories of organic chemistry that was unique and profoundly important in influencing students. After retirement and until his death at the age of 89, "Pop" Nelson was active in reorganizing the Chandler Chemistry Museum.

Havemeyer Hall was home to many notable scientists and scientific discoveries in the 20th century. Irving Langmuir, one of Charles Frederick Chandler's students at the School of Mines, who received a degree in metallurgical engineering in 1903, received the 1932 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his outstanding discoveries and inventions within the field of surface chemistry.Û He was the first American employed by an industrial laboratory to receive the prize. Harold Clayton Urey won the 1934 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of deuterium (heavy hydrogen).Û Louis P.ÛHammett was a founder of the field of physical organic chemistry. As chairman, he led the chemistry department into the modern era. Other chemists who were trained at Columbia would themselves become pioneers of chemistry. These include Nobel laureates John H. Northrup, a 1946 recipient for his investigations of protein molecules; Edward C. Kendall, 1950 recipient for his work in cortical hormones; and Roald Hoffmann, who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize for his work in applied theoretical chemistry.

Today, Havemeyer Hall is the centerpiece of a three-building complex that includes Chandler, the nine-story research building that is historic in its own right for the work that has gone on within its laboratories, and a new six-story annex that houses research and teaching laboratories.Û Havemeyer's grand lecture hall, Room 309, has been maintained in its original elegant design.