Category Archives: Mallet Chemistry Library

Chemistry, Construction and Champagne

Photo courtesy College of Natural Sciences.

On April 20, the Libraries joined students, alumni, faculty and friends of the Department of Chemistry in celebrating the grand opening of the renovated wing of Welch Hall after an almost 2-year construction project.

Attendees for the “Champagne & Sledgehammers” event got a first peek at the new space with speed talks by faculty researchers and scientists, some chemistry fun with explosive experiments by Dr. Kate Beiberdorf, various science demonstrations by students and even some liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Photo courtesy College of Natural Sciences.

Originally built in 1929, Welch is one of the university’s largest academic buildings, hosting 10,000+ UT students every day for classes, seminars and labs with its world class faculty. The renovation is the first phase in modernizing the facility for 21st century needs of the department, providing new classrooms, research and teaching labs, and infrastructure updates

The second phase of the project was simultaneously launched at the event, which will address needs in the newer 1978 wing of the building. The combined renovations will result in the transformation of a total 19,000 square feet of space — the first significant step in the College of Natural Sciences five-year Master Space Plan.

The Mallet Chemistry Library was featured centrally in the festivities, functioning as a meeting space straddling the two project areas where alumni joined to mingle with students and faculty, share in rounds of historical trivia about the department and indulge in some very scientific molecular gastronomy in the form of champagne caviar — little gelated balls of bubbly created through the liquid spherification.

Though outside the scope of the larger plans for Welch Hall, the Libraries are working with the College of Natural Sciences to develop a strategy for updates to the Chemistry Library that would enhance it as a community center for the sciences and incorporate more discipline-specific services and resources in alignment with other modernizations to the building. Current goals are to raise $3.5 million by the end of 2017 in order to begin design and planning efforts for library renovations.

See more photos from the event at the CNS Flickr page.

Please comment below if you are interested in being contacted with more information.

In Memoriam: Dr. James E. Boggs

Dr. James E. Boggs. Photo from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

James E. Boggs, longtime chemistry professor and library benefactor, passed away on June 2, 2013, at the age of 91.

Dr. Boggs came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1953, after working in the Manhattan Project as an Oberlin College undergraduate and then getting his PhD at the University of Michigan.  In 1948 he married Ruth Ann Rogers, a librarian.  They had originally planned to stay only a few years in Texas, but ended up spending the rest of their lives in Austin.

A physical chemist specializing in molecular structure and dynamics with over 400 scientific publications, Boggs established the long-running Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure, which convened here starting in 1966.  As a popular teacher he pioneered a course on science in society and taught freshman chemistry for many years.

Boggs was an avid traveler and internationalist, and worked for years with the Overseas Study Program to seek out talented chemists in far-flung places around the world, providing them with professional opportunities to publish, travel, and work as post-docs in his lab.  While he retired officially in his seventies, as professor emeritus he maintained an active work schedule and a funded laboratory up until the time of his death.

In 1998 he and his wife established the James E. and Ruth Ann Boggs Endowment Fund, which has benefited the Mallet Chemistry Library as it strives to remain one of the best chemistry collections in the country.  The endowment has enabled the purchase of many expensive monographs and reference sets over the years, and along with the Skinner Endowment provides the margin of excellence that a top research library needs.  Memorial donations may be made to the Boggs Fund via the UT giving site.

David Flaxbart is the head librarian of the Mallet Chemistry Library.