Emma P. Carr

Emma P. Carr
Born July 23, 1880(1880-07-23)
Holmesville, Ohio, USA
Died January 7, 1972(1972-01-07) (aged 91)
Evanston, Illinois, USA
Fields ultraviolet spectroscopy
Institutions Mount Holyoke College
Alma mater Ohio State University
Mount Holyoke College
University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor Julius Stieglitz
Notable awards Francis P. Garvan Medal (1937)

Emma Perry Carr (July 23, 1880 – January 7, 1972) was an American spectroscopist and chemical educator.

Carr was born in Holmesville, Ohio, the third child of Edmund and Anna Carr.[1] She went to high school in Coshocton, Ohio, before attending Ohio State University from 1898 until 1899, and then Mount Holyoke College from 1900 until 1902.[2] She stayed at Mount Holyoke as an assistant in the chemistry department[1] until going to the University of Chicago to take her senior year in physical chemistry, receiving her B.S. in 1905.[2] She then spent two years teaching at Mount Holyoke before returning to Chicago to study for her Ph.D., which she received in 1910.[1][2]

With her Ph.D. in hand, she returned to Mount Holyoke as a professor, being named Head of Department in 1913.[1][2] She was able to establish a research program studying the ultraviolet spectra of hydrocarbons, and established a link between the frequencies of the absorptions and the enthalpy change of combustion of the compound.[1][3] She also participated in the International Critical Tables of the International Research Council, where she worked with Professor Victor Henri of the University of Zurich.[2][4] She retired in 1946.[1][2]

Carr was the inaugural recipient in 1937 of the Francis P. Garvan Gold Medal of the American Chemical Society (ACS), established "to recognize distinguished service to chemistry by women chemists".[5] She also received the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry of the Northeastern Section of the ACS in Spring 1957 (with Mary Lura Sherrill).[6] The chemistry building at Mount Holyoke College was dedicated in her honor in 1955.[2]

When her health began to fail her, she was placed in a care home in Evanston, Illinois, nearer to her nephew, James Carr, and the rest of her family. She died of heart failure on January 7, 1972.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Project NOVA Biographical Data Base of Scientists (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona), http://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/carr.html, retrieved 2011-03-31 .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Carr, Emma P. – Papers, ca. 1902–1986 – Manuscript Collection: MS 0517, Mount Holyoke College, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/arch/col/msrg/mancol/ms0517r.htm, retrieved 2011-03-31 .
  3. ^ Carr, Emma P. (1930), "A Relation between Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra and Heats of Combustion", Nature 125: 237, doi:10.1038/125237a0 .
  4. ^ Washburn, Edward W., ed. (1927), International critical tables of numerical data, physics, chemistry and technology, 5, New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. vii, 326, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lkArAAAAYAAJ .
  5. ^ Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, American Chemical Society, http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/funding/awards/national/bytopic/CTP_004521, retrieved 2011-03-31 .
  6. ^ Recipients of the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry, Northeastern Section, American Chemical Society, http://www.nesacs.org/Awards/Norris/norris_recipients.html, retrieved 2011-03-31 .

Selected writings