Chapter 4: A Pioneer

A phone call from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1962 catapulted me into science education. At the time I was working at the National Academy of Sciences as a literature chemist developing an encyclopedia of chemical terms. My previous career included being a research chemist for the Sun Oil Company, developing new processes for separating hydrocarbon fractions. Throughout my college years, graduate school, and my work as a chemist I had had little interest in education other than my own.

The call from NSF came as a result of the country’s investment in science education, responding to the shock of Sputnik, sent aloft by the Soviet Union in October 1957. By 1962, the country was in the depths of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. The most dramatic response to Sputnik had come in 1961, with President Kennedy’s announcement of the ambitious goal to send an American to the moon. The scientific community, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), had already taken initiatives to stir the education system into developing manpower able to respond to the Soviet challenge and the race to the moon. This included the expansion of students enrolled in technical fields as well as reform of high school science and mathematics curricula.