For decades, chemists have worried about what the public thinks of their work. In the pages of <i>Chemical & Engineering News </i>through the years, ACS presidents and others have written about what they perceive as chemistry’s image problem—in particular, these pieces express a feeling that the public views chemistry and chemicals in a negative light. In this talk, I’ll take a historical look at these articles and the solutions the authors proposed to fix the problem. I’ll also present data collected about chemistry’s image and open up a discussion about the reality of the situation and how chemists might address it.

Chemistry’s public image: A historical look through the pages of C&EN

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.