James Bryant Conant

James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As the President of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution. Conant was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1893 and graduated from the Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury in 1910. He went on to study chemistry at Harvard (B.A., Phi Beta Kappa 1914; Ph.D., 1917). At Harvard he studied under Charles Lori... more

James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As the President of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution. Conant was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1893 and graduated from the Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury in 1910. He went on to study chemistry at Harvard (B.A., Phi Beta Kappa 1914; Ph.D., 1917). At Harvard he studied under Charles Loring Jackson, and became acquainted with Roger Adams, Farrington Daniels, Frank C. Whitmore and James B. Sumner. As a Harvard professor, he worked on both physical and organic chemistry. The American Chemical Society honored him with its highest prize, the Priestley Medal, in 1944. In 1933, Conant accepted an appointment as the President of Harvard University, a post he held until 1953. Between 1941 and 1946, he also served as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee; from that position he played a key role, along with his close... less