Childhood and major influences; college education at Harvard University; position at Edward C. Worden Co., position at Columbia University's chemistry department as a graduate student and instructor, as a professor, and as the department chairman; history of chemistry department's administration. Major emphasis on his research results and papers spanning his entire career; Hammett equation and acidity theory; his contact with students Henry P. Treffers, Martin Paul, Lois Zucker. Work during the World War I and World War II; consulting work; development of the field of physical organic chemistry and opinion of the future of chemistry. Philosophy of research; talk with Mrs. Hammett. Also prominently mentioned are: Roger Adams, Adkins, Bernard Auchincloss, Paul Doughty Bartlett, Hal Beans, Ernst Bodenstein, Marston Bogert, Branch, Breslow, Johannes Brn︣sted, Joseph Bunnett, Burkhardt, Mary Caldwell, Ray Christ, James Bryant Conant, Ralph Connor, Alder J. Deyrup, John R. Dunning, Henry Eyring, Leo Flexser, George S. Forbes, Ernie Grunwald, Janet Hammett, Arthur R. Hantzsch, Christopher Ingold, Iserman, James Kendall, Elmer Kohler, A. B. Lamb, Irving Langmuir, Jose Levy, Gilbert Newton Lewis, Willard Frank Libby, Bill McEwan, J. L. R. Morgan, Rosetta Natoli, J. M. Nelson, James Flack Norris, Louis Plack, Michael Polanyi, T. W. Richards, R. Robinson, Smith, Alexander Smith, E. F. Smith, Hermann Staudinger, Julius Stieglitz, Arthur Thomas, Harold Clayton Urey, George Walden, Chaim Weizmann, E. C. Worden, Theodore Zucker, Dick Zuemer; Alpha Chi Sigma Fraternity, American Chemical Society, Commercial Solvents Co., E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company, Inc., Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule at Zurich, Johns Hopkins University, Manhattan Project, Petroleum Research Fund, Rohm and Haas Co., United States President's Science Advisory Committee, Universal Oil Production Corporation, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Illinois, and University of Wisconsin.
