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Faculty Ronald Brisbois Staff Barbara Ekeberg Emeritus Faculty Truman Schwartz
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A. Truman Schwartz Emeritus Professor of ChemistryB.A., University of South Dakota, 1956 Truman Schwartz was born in Freeman, South Dakota, a farming town of 1000 happy souls and a few disgruntled ones. There were 17 in his graduating class and it never occurred to him to go to school outside of the state. At an early age Schwartz was captivated by a chemistry set, and he graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1956 with a BA in that discipline. He then went off to Oxford University where he earned another BA, bought an MA, and spent some of the ill-gotten gains from Cecil Rhodes' diamond diggings. He earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at MIT in 1963, working on solution thermodynamics with George Scatchard. For the next three years Schwartz was a research chemist with the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati. Contrary to rumor, he was not distributing Joy and Cheer to the households of America; rather he was trying to make an egg free angel food cake. He arrived at Macalester in 1966 and has been here ever since, except for sabbaticals at the Universities of Massachusetts (Amherst), Wisconsin (Madison), and York (UK) and briefer research and teaching assignments at the Universities of Lund (Sweden) and California (Berkeley). He also spent a year as a year as a petit-bureaucrats at the national Science Foundation. Professor Schwartz regularly teaches general and physical chemistry, and he has dabbled in a wide range of interdisciplinary courses, including involvement in history and English. He may be best known for an Interim (January) course called "Introductory Alchemy of How to Make Gold for Fun and Profit." For some time he did laboratory research on the physical chemistry of proteins, but about the only experimental work he has done recently has been in his kitchen. He is the author, co-author, or editor of about ten books, including Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society, a college level text for non science majors. Most of his published papers are in the Journal of Chemical Education, and in the average year he presents about ten guest lectures or invited papers at educational institutions and at regional, national or international meetings. His contributions to chemical education have been recognized with a number of national awards, including the Chemical Manufacturers Association Catalyst Award, the James Flack Norris Award, and an honorary D.Sc. from his undergraduate alma mater. Truman Schwartz was selected by the American Chemical Society (ACS) as the 2006 recipient of the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education. This award is the highest one in education given by the ACS. Nominees must have made outstanding contributions to chemical education considered in its broadest meaning, including the training of professional chemists; the dissemination of reliable information about chemistry to prospective chemists, to members of the profession, to students in other fields, and to the general public; and the integration of chemistry into our education system. Schwartz is honored "in recognition of his leadership within the chemical education community, his influential writings and lectures, his mentorships, and his zeal to produce scientifically literate graduates." The award was presented at the national ACS meeting in Chicago from March 25-27, 2007, at which time a symposium took place in his honor. Truman Schwartz is married to the former Beverly Beatty. They met as freshmen in the University of South Dakota band and they are still making music together in the Macalester concert band. Truman also play cornet and flugelhorn in the Generation Gap, the Macalester faculty/staff jazz band. The Schwartzes have two children: Ron who works for a television production company in Chicago and Kate who is an editor in Boston. After 32 years, Truman still likes Macalester, his colleagues, and his students. Email: schwartz@macalester.edu |
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