CHF Awarded $3 Million Grant for Dr. Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project

PHILADELPHIA, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has been awarded a $3 million grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for the Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project. This four-year project seeks to raise understanding and awareness of the ongoing significance of Dr. Arnold O. Beckman as a scientist-entrepreneur and, with his wife, Mabel, as a philanthropist through examinations of Dr. Beckman's own efforts and those supported through his and Mabel's foundation.

"Dr. Beckman's legacy touches billions of lives around the world, yet its significant social impact is little appreciated," said Carsten Reinhardt, CHF's president and CEO. "As an organization committed to the history of science and technology, CHF is delighted to have this opportunity to chronicle Dr. Beckman's critical contributions to modern society, both through his direct actions and indirectly through the work supported by his philanthropy. Our public-history and digital-media experts, along with our museum team and historians, will ensure that we engage with scientific and technical communities as well as a broad public audience."

Dr. Arnold O. Beckman's pH meter was key to the launch of the "Instrumentation Revolution" in chemistry, the life sciences and connected fields, which provided researchers with powerful tools that have tremendously increased the scope and pace of these critical pursuits. He was a pioneer in the electronic computer industry. He established the first silicon electronics lab in what became Silicon Valley. He championed the application of scientific methods to understand and address environmental challenges like smog.

Together with his wife, Mabel, Dr. Beckman became a major philanthropist when they created a charitable foundation that supports scientific research and technological innovation. The Beckmans established multidisciplinary academic institutes and supported high-risk, high-return research that have yielded important discoveries and continue to develop technological responses to acute societal needs.

The Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project of CHF will increase public understanding of Dr. Beckman's broad and continuing legacy through a program of original historical research, digitization of archival materials, and the development of video and Web-based programming.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation makes grants to program-related, non-profit research institutions to promote research in chemistry and the life sciences, broadly interpreted, and particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science.

About CHF

CHF fosters dialogue on science and technology in society. Our staff and fellows study the past in order to understand the present and inform the future. We focus on matter and materials and their effects on our modern world in territory ranging from the physical sciences and industries, through the chemical sciences and engineering, to the life sciences and technologies. We collect, preserve, and exhibit historical artifacts; engage communities of scientists and engineers; and tell the stories of the people behind breakthroughs and innovations.

For more information, please visit chemheritage.org.

Contact:  Neil Gussman, 717-314-2494, [email protected]

Video - http://origin-qps.onstreammedia.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/Arnold_O_Beckman_Promo-HD.mp4

SOURCE Chemical Heritage Foundation

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