Sterling Chemistry Laboratory building students

Celebrating an academic building of national importance

May 9 - 11, 2024 

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History

At Yale Chemistry, we like to say we’ve been “bonding together since 1846.” Integral to our growth was the construction of the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory in 1923, at the time America’s largest academic building dedicated to chemistry.

Below is a feature spread of the historic 1923 building dedication and an essay on the history of Chemistry at Yale.

Dedication of the Sterling Laboratory in 1923

The dedication of Yale’s great Chemistry laboratory in 1923 was of national importance at the time as the American Chemical Society (ACS) held its annual national meeting in conjunction with the opening of the building.

The chemical essays from that ACS meeting became the first two volumes of Chemical Reviews, a journal that remains influential after more than three-quarters of a century.

Learn more in the eight-page spread in the 1923 edition of the Yale Alumni Magazine.

Read more (file download)
alumni weekly

Chemistry at Yale

This historical essay covers the beginning of teaching and research in chemistry at Yale 200 years ago through the development of chemistry at Yale and the organization of a modern chemistry department. It concludes with capsule descriptions of the types of chemical research that have been practiced at Yale during the past 50 years and a few observations on the role of the Chemistry Department in Yale’s fourth century.

Read the essay (file download)
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Sterling Chemistry Lab reopens as a catalyst for cutting-edge science

A 2016 ANNOUNCEMENT

“From its gleaming, glass-enclosed teaching labs to the powerful mechanical hubs located in the basement and penthouse, the new Sterling Chemistry Lab has all the right elements to be a citadel of science for the next century.”

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