Lectures in Japanese about Significant Events in the History of Chemistry - 9780974895246

Professor Takeuchi became Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo in 1995. He continued his distinguished career teaching and researching in the Kanagawa University Chemistry Department for ten years.

He has authored more than 200 papers in several primary fields of research in both Japanese and international chemical journals. He has for many years been a titular member on the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Committee on Chemistry Education.

Professor Takeuchi engaged in the IUPAC project to make English chemistry textbooks available online and contributed two: Basic Chemistry and Stereochemistry.

Surprisingly, Professor Takeuchi's first academic degree at the University of Tokyo in 1960 was not in chemistry but in the history and philosophy of science. Believing that a historian should know more about science, he entered graduate school in chemistry, gained his Masters Degree in 1962, and his Doctor of Science in 1967.

However, he never abandoned his interest in the history of chemistry, writing many monographs for young people and interested adults. He chose the rubric "History of Chemistry---of Chemists, by Chemists, and for the People," which reflects an interest he shared, with all young people in Japan after WWII, in Lincoln's famous words, "of the People, by the People, and for the People."

Professor Takeuchi's stories came about because NHK invited him to inject some "spice" into each 30 minute chemistry program for high school students, lest a steady diet of pure chemistry prove boring to both young people and interested adults, whom NHK also wished to reach.