Ira Remsen
| Ira Remsen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 10, 1846 New York City, New York, USA |
| Died | March 4, 1927 (aged 81) Carmel, California, USA |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions |
EK University, Tübingen Williams College Johns Hopkins University |
| Alma mater |
College of Physicians and Surgeons University of Göttingen |
| Doctoral advisor | Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig |
| Doctoral students |
William Henry Emerson Charles Herty William A. Noyes Kotaro Shimomura |
| Known for | Discovery of saccharin Founder, American Chemical Journal |
| Notable awards |
Priestley Medal (1923) Willard Gibbs Award (1914) |
Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was a chemist who, along with Constantin Fahlberg, discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.
Ira Remsen was born in New York City and earned an M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1867. Remsen subsequently studied chemistry in Germany, studying under chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig, receiving a Ph.D. from University of Göttingen in 1870. In 1872, after researching pure chemistry at University of Tübingen, Remsen returned to the United States and became a professor at Williams College, where he wrote the popular text Theoretical Chemistry. Remsen's book and reputation brought him to the attention of Daniel Coit Gilman, who invited him to become one of the original faculty of Johns Hopkins University. Remsen accepted and founded the department of chemistry there, overseeing his own laboratory. In 1879 Remsen founded the American Chemical Journal, which he edited for 35 years.
In 1879 Fahlberg, working with Remsen in a post-doctoral capacity, made an accidental discovery that changed Remsen's career. Eating rolls at dinner after a long day in the lab researching coal tar derivatives, Fahlberg noticed that the rolls tasted initially sweet but then bitter. Since his wife tasted nothing strange about the rolls, Fahlberg tasted his fingers and noticed that the bitter taste was probably from one of the chemicals in his lab. The next day at his lab he tasted the chemicals that he had been working with the previous day and discovered that it was the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide he had tasted the previous evening. He named the substance saccharin and he and his research partner Remsen published their finding in 1880. Later Remsen became angry after Fahlberg, in patenting saccharin, claimed that he alone had discovered saccharin. Remsen had no interest in the commercial success of saccharin, from which Fahlberg profited, but he was incensed at the perceived dishonesty of not crediting him as the head of the laboratory.
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