American Chemical Society history

ACS began publishing its flagship journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), in April, 1879.

As reported in the May 1881 Proceedings of the Society, Doctor Moore resigned as Editor of JACS and “a committee, consisting of Drs.

Doctor Breneman was one of the very early members of the ACS, first joining in 1882, just 2 years before he would take up the role of Editor-in-Chief of JACS. “It was hard to get papers in those days…the notion was current that it was distinctly a New York organization.”

Due to his interest in the printing process, he began to edit his own journal, Journal of Analytical and Applied Chemistry, in 1887.

In 1888, JACS marked 10 years of continuous publication — no small feat for a scientific journal of the time.

The first general meeting under the new constitution took place in Newport, Rhode Island in August 1890.

In January 1891, the society approved the formation of the Rhode Island Section as its first local section.

However, shortly after Harvey W. Wiley become president of the ACS in 1893, he requested that Doctor Hart become the Editor-in-Chief of JACS instead.

In this tribute to Louis Pasteur, published in JACS on the occasion of his death in 1895, John Tyndall expressed that Pasteur, “although a master mind in physics and geology, was preeminently a chemist,” and hailed him as “one of the pioneers in the field of stereochemistry.”

Only 5 years later, he published his first article in JACS and, from 1900 through the end of his career, would continue to publish extensively in the journal on his research on atomic weights.

In June 1902 William H. Nichols conveyed 10 shares of preferred stock in his General Chemical Company to the American Chemical Society to endow its first award.

The "Nichols Medal of the New York Section" was first awarded in 1903.

He founded Chemical Abstracts in 1907 and actively contributed to the development and launch of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Chemical Monographs, and Chemical Reviews.

Doctor Behr served on the inaugural JACS Publication Committee and, in 1909, won the Perkins research medal “for distinguished service to applied chemistry.”

In 1912, Doctor Richards won the Willard Gibbs Medal Award, which recognizes chemists who help us better understand the way the world works.

Among these was a 1914 Conference on Chemicals and Dyestuffs, which called attention to the United States dependence on imported chemicals and to the need for American chemical companies to expand into dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and other organic chemicals.

Doctor Noyes was also Secretary for the ACS for three years and its President in 1920.

Chemical & Engineering News is a weekly trade magazine that has been published by ACS since 1923.

In 1926, the North Jersey and New York local sections joined forces with the publication of The Indicator, a special issue of which has been published for this meeting.

Ten years into Arthur B. Lamb’s remarkable tenure as Editor-in-Chief, the journal celebrates its 50th volume in 1928, under his editorial leadership.

The first meetings were held at the Chemist's Club, until 1935.

On August 25, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Public Act No.

Published in 1938, one of JACS‘ most-cited articles to date was authored by Stephen Brunauer, P. H. Emmett, and Edward Teller.

In 1949, Doctor Morgan won the Garvan-Olin medal, which recognizes distinguished service in the field of chemistry by a woman chemist.

In 1951, the Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award was created to award women in the field of chemistry or biochemistry who are not older than 40 years during the nomination period.

In January 1952, the journal began publishing biweekly.

1953, the year of JACS‘ 75th volume, remains a historic year for science thanks to the work of James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, and Maurice Wilkins.

Bard shares his roots with the ACS itself, being a native of New York City and receiving his B.S. from City College of New York in 1955.

Published in March 1958, Preparation of Graphitic Oxide by William S. Hummers Jr. and Richard E. Offemanhas achieved over 90,000 article views and 22,000 citations to date.

He was a prolific JACS author and he also served as President of the ACS. In 1964, the Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics was established in his honor.

In 1966, the Linus Pauling Medal was created to recognize excellence in chemistry that embodies the spirit of Doctor Pauling.

After 6 years as JACS Editor-in-Chief and 13 years as an Associate Editor, Doctor Gates stepped down from his role in 1969, stating “it was time JACS had younger and more aggressive leadership.”

She was a prolific JACS author, the 1976 Garvan-Olin medal, and the Women in Science and Engineering’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

With Cheves Walling still leading the journal, JACS entered its 100th volume in 1978.

The parent hydrocarbon dodecahedron, C20H20 with the same symmetry was first prepared in 1982 by L.A. Paquette and coworkers by classical covalent synthesis in 23 overall linear steps.”

In addition to his published work, Doctor Langmuir’s work is recognized with the naming of the journal Langmuir, which began publication in 1985.

Previous Associate Editor Jean M. J. Fréchet discussed a memorable paper his group published in 1990, “Preparation of polymers with controlled molecular architecture.

Gero Decher’s discovery (in 1991) of the polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer assembly method really broke this field open, because one needed only positively and negatively charged polymers – so simple an engineer could do it!

In 1992, the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program was created to enhance the public's recognition and appreciation of the contributions of the chemical sciences and chemical engineering to modern life and to increase the sense of pride in their practitioners.

In 1994, JACS began publishing a compact disc (CD) version.

Another boom in research output from the growing scientific community led to the decision to start publishing JACS weekly, starting in January 1995, the journal’s 117th volume.

In “JACS on the Internet,” a 1996 editorial, Doctor Bard explained how and why life on the “World Wide Web” would benefit JACS. He explained the trends and why this was important to the journal’s future, and JACS embarked on a new way to present the journal.

Doctor Müllen himself has been an active JACS author for almost 20 years, first publishing in the journal in 1999.

The American Chemical Society, to whom the assets of the Fund were transferred in 2000, administers grants made to nonprofit institutions in the United States and other countries in response to proposals.

In 2001, the ACS celebrated its 125 Year Anniversary by commissioning a three-dimensional tribute sculpture by Italian artist Lawrence Romorini.

Peter J. Stang, took up the role of Editor-in-Chief of JACS in 2002.

In 2006, the ACS introduced Open Access options so that all ACS journals, including JACS, offered authors, their funders, and institutions the opportunity to make any article open access.

ACS PRF funding commitments in 2007 totaled $25.2 million.

During volume 130 of JACS, 2008, the ACS launched the JACS Beta website.

The idea of the JACS Perspectives was introduced by Doctor Peter Stang in an editorial in 2009.

Her career includes not only being the first female Associate Editor but she also was the first female chief executive of North Carolina State University, was named the Chancellor of the University of California San Diego, and, in 2010, was awarded the National Medal of Science.

In 2011, Doctor Peter Stang won a National Medal of Science, the highest United States honor for a scientist or engineer.

In 2012, JACS introduced Spotlight articles as a way to highlight recent publications in the journal — summarizing the key findings and, more importantly, communicating the impact and significance of the work in a way that will be relevant to nonexperts.

The 2013 Priestley Medal, the ACS’ most prestigious award, was presented to Doctor Peter Stang “for his preeminence in organic chemistry and pioneering of a biological self-assembly and supramolecular chemistry using the directional bonding approach.”

In 2014, this was expanded to include more ACS AuthorChoice license types — ACS Editors’ Choice and ACS Author Rewards — as well as two fully open access journals, ACS Central Science and ACS Omega.

One of his selected article highlights is “Interfaces Select Specific Stereochemical Conformations: The Isomerization of Glyoxal at the Liquid Water Interface“, published in 2017.

The article was originally made free to read during the month of June 2019 but was subsequently selected as an ACS Editors’ Choice® article and is now available open access to the entire research community.