Edgar Fahs Smith reprints

Edgar Fahs Smith was born in York Pennsylvania on May 23, 1854. He studied at Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg and earned his Ph.D. under Friedrich Wohler in Gottingen, Germany. After his return to the United States, Smith taught and eventually found himself at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he stayed for the remainder of his career serving as both professor of chemistry and as Provost. Smith's fields of expertise were electrochemistry, determination of atomic weights and rare-earth elements. He had a life-long interest in the history of chemistry and served as the first president of the ACS History of Chemistry division. He was also three times elected president of the ACS. He was a member of American Philosophical Society, the History of Science Society and, in 18989, was elected to to the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Priestley Medal in 1926 and died in Philadelphia on May 3 1928.