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- Old Venable Hall on Dec. 10, 1924.(photo courtesy of N.C. Collecction, University Libraries)
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- Royce Murray (left) and chemistry colleague Oscar Rice in Rice’s Venable Hall office. (photo courtesy of N.C. Collection, University Libraries)
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- Maurice Bursey (center in this undated photo) wrote the departmental history Carolina Chemists, published in 1982, and another book seven years later on Francis P. Venable. (photo courtesy of N.C. Collection, University Libraries)
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- William “Bill” Little was known as the “heart, soul and energizing force” of the chemistry department. When he became chair in 1965, he understood early on the importance of investing in bright young faculty. (photo courtesy of N.C. Collection, University Libraries)
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- Unidentified graduate students in a chemistry lab; note the mouth pipetting technique, long since prohibited for safety reasons. (photo courtesy of N.C. Collection, University Libraries)
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- When Royce Murray arrived in 1960, faculty members were working in labs in the sprawling ranch-style Venable Hall. (Old) Venable was torn down in January 2008 to make way for (new) Venable. (photo courtesy of N.C. Collection, University Libraries)
Chemistry Milestones, 1818 – 2018
1818 Denison Olmsted becomes UNC’s professor of chemistry and mineralogy
1852 Smith Hall, the first chemistry building (which included a teaching lab), opens
1875 Chemistry moves to Person Hall
1880 Francis P. Venable becomes sixth professor of chemistry and first UNC faculty member with an earned Ph.D.
1891 John Motley Morehead does graduate work in chemistry with Venable
1893 William Rand Kenan Jr. graduates with senior thesis on the identification of calcium carbide
1900 Francis P. Venable becomes president of UNC
1909 Daisy Burrows Allen is the first woman to graduate with a B.S. in chemistry
1925 Venable Hall is dedicated
1927 Lillie Fielding Poisson Cutlar is the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry
1953 Second half of Venable Hall is dedicated
1956 William F. Little joins the UNC faculty
1960 Royce W. Murray is appointed assistant professor of analytical chemistry
1965 Eddie Lee Hoover is the first African-American student to earn a B.A. in chemistry
1971 Kenan Laboratories opens
1974 Slayton A. Evans Jr. becomes the department’s first African-American faculty member
1976 Linda L. Spremulli becomes the first female faculty member
1985 Morehead Laboratories opens
1990 Joseph DeSimone becomes assistant professor at UNC
2004 Ground is broken for the Carolina Physical Science Complex
2007 First of the new chemistry buildings, W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories, opens
2008 Holden Thorp, former department chair, becomes UNC chancellor
2010 Murray and New Venable halls open
2012 Valerie Sheares Ashby becomes first female and first African-American department chair
2016 Joseph DeSimone receives the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation
2018 Chemistry celebrates its bicentennial
Read a story on chemistry’s bicentennial and a sidebar on a new grant to support female chemists.
By Patty Courtright (B.A. ’75, M.A. ’83)