John C. Sheehan Collection of Chemical Advertisements

John Clark Sheehan was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on September 23, 1915. Sheehan studied chemistry and political science at Battle Creek College and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1941. After receiving his Ph.D., Sheehan worked as a senior research chemist at Merck & Co. in Rahway, NJ under the direction of Max Tishler and was a Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1946 to 1952. Following his tenure at M.I.T., Sheehan worked in the E.R. Squibb Research and Development Laboratories in New Brunswick, NJ and served as a consultant and chairman to several Presidential Scientific Advisory Committees throughout the 1960s. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Chemical Society, Sheehan is best known for his research on synthetic penicillin, which paved the way for the development of customized forms of antibiotic capable of targeting specific bacteria. John Clark Sheehan died on March 21, 1992 in Key Biscayne, Florida.