Evan Hepler-Smith

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As a fellow Evan Hepler-Smith worked on his dissertation, “Nominally Rational: Systematic Nomenclature and the Structures of Organic Chemistry, 1889–1935.”

Also from Evan Hepler-Smith

What's in a Name? A Talk with Evan Hepler-Smith

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on a bottle of household cleaner and wondered what all those long chemical names mean? Evan Hepler-Smith shares the surprising story of how many synthetic chemicals got their names. Why do names matter? What do literature and science have in common? And what happened when a bunch of chemists got together and decided to turn chemistry into a song?

See more videos with research fellows at Behind the Beaker.

More From the Author

Quest for Permanence

Distillations Article

Innovative industrialist, camouflage artist, and art detective, Maximilian Toch was a quintessential Renaissance man. He also symbolized the changing place of chemistry and chemists in turn-of-the-20th-century America.