Physical/Analytical Chemistry
In/Organic Chemistry
Biochemistry
UD Chem History
Guess that Professor!
100

The pretty pink color commonly associated with titrations is a result of this indicator.

What is phenolphthalein?

100

This famous molecule is the first recognized aromatic hydrocarbon.

What is benzene?

100
This acidic molecule forms a twisted shape with its sugar/phosphate backbone.

What is DNA?

100

In 1802, this French Immigrant founded a company to make gunpowder. This namesake company would be the beginning of a legacy that would turn Delaware into a national hub for chemical innovation.

Who is Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours?

100

This professor was cited by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry in 2022.

Who is Joe Fox?

200

This famous mechanical engineer turned physicist wrote his PhD dissertation (titled: "On the Form of the Teeth of Wheels in Spur Gearing") just 10 years before publishing papers that would reshape mathematical descriptions of physio-chemical systems.

Who is Josiah Willard Gibbs?

200

This element is second only to oxygen in the Earth's crust and shares similar bonding traits to carbon.

What is Silicon?

200

These types of solutions minimize changes in pH and allow for steady conditions when studying enzyme activity or controlling reactions.

What are buffers?

200

This famous UD chemical engineering alum suggested surrounding wire with PTFE tape for insulation, eventually leading to the invention of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) and the success of his family's namesake company.

Who is Bob Gore?

200

This professor was required to take a phys ed credit in undergrad and fulfilled it by doing a semester of bowling.

Who is Darrell Collison?

300

This laboratory technique is used to measure the heat of combustion of a reaction at a constant volume and is often preformed by chemistry students in their junior year.

What is bomb calorimetry?

300

This functional group is formed when a carboxylic acid reacts with an alcohol and often have pleasant aromas (like apples, bananas, or flowers).

What is an ester?

300

Each individual hemoglobin molecule can bind up to this many oxygen molecules.

What is 4?

300

This former UD chem professor is known for his Nobel prize winning coupling reaction.

Who is Richard Heck?

300

This professor went to undergrad in Washington, PA and flew into Washington, DC instead.

Who is Ash Yazdanshenas?

400

This SI unit (luminous intensity) is the Latin word item that was commonly used as reference for one unit until the scale was standardized in 1948.

What is a Candela?

400

The colors in stained glass are achieved by doping the silica network with d-block transition metal oxides. When these metals are trapped in the glass, the surrounding oxygen atoms act as ligands, splitting the metal's d-orbitals. When hit by light, valence electrons jump between these split energy levels, absorbing specific wavelengths and transmitting others. This transition metal oxide is commonly used to make a blue glass that when ground and used as a pigment is called "smalt".

What is Cobalt oxide?

400

Enantiomers are pairs of non-superimposable mirror-image molecules that are often only biologically active in one of their two forms. In this famous morning sickness drug, one of the molecule's enantiomers was found to cause severe birth defects (only after millions of doses were prescribed).

What is thalidomide?

400

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry moved into Brown Lab in this century.

What is the 1930's? (1937)

400

This professor watched the 2003 NCAA Division I-AA national championship (in which the Blue Hens won 40-0) live- while rooting for the other team (Colgate University).

Who is Trevor Daly?

500

This is the solution to a given Schrödinger equation, containing all the measurable information about the quantum system.

What is the Wave Function?

500

In April of this year, nitrogen heterocycles (rings of carbon atoms that includes nitrogen- considered a predecessor to RNA and DNA) were found in what signifigant location?

Where is Mars?

500

While a few specialized bacteria use tungsten as part of their biochemical pathways, this element is the heaviest to be used in human biochemistry.

What is iodine?

500

UD awarded the first class of chemical engineers their degree in what decade?

What is the 1910's? (1915)

500

This professor once drank 8 shots of vodka and peach schnapps in under 5 minutes and then tried to fix the situation by eating boxes of pretzel sticks. This same professor also did a photoshoot in a washing machine.

Who is Lauren Genova?

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