Irving Shain Honored at Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin, Madison, chemistry department hosted educational, artistic, and social events on May 5-6 to dedicate the new Irving Shain Chemistry Research Tower. Shain, who most recently served the university as its chancellor, was on hand for the events.

Shain joined the Wisconsin faculty in 1952, and from 1967 to 1970, he served as chair of the chemistry department. In 1970, he was named university vice chancellor. He served from 1975 to 1977 as vice president for academic affairs at the University of Washington before returning to Wisconsin where he served as chancellor from 1977 to 1986. After retiring from Wisconsin, he joined Olin Corp. as vice president and chief scientist until 1992.

At Wisconsin, Shain, among other things, impelled the establishment of the University Research Park. The park rose out of his vision of developing an enterprise that accommodates the needs of private entrepreneurs while producing revenue to help underwrite research and related academic enterprises within the university.

Shain maintains, however, that his most enduring contribution has come through his students. "My legacy includes the 27 students who earned their Ph.D.s working with me and their research results," he says.

Perhaps Shain's most important paper was coauthored with Richard S. Nicholson and was based on Nicholson's 1964 Ph.D. dissertation. In this paper, the researchers described what has become known as cyclic voltammetry. Published in Analytical Chemistry, the paper was the fourth most frequently cited publication of the first 75 years of the journal's history. Nicholson is chief executive officer emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The tower will be a fine and fitting tribute to Shain's impact on campus, according to current Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley. "Irv has been and even in retirement continues to be one of the most consistently influential figures in the history of the university," Wiley says. "He was an inspirational teacher and scholar. As department chair and later as chancellor, his leadership paved the way for the many difficult organizational and administrative modernizations needed for the challenging times he foresaw."