About the Book

Proceedings of a four-day symposium honoring Henry C. McBay as the Institute's first Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar. He was a retired professor of chemistry at Morehouse College, Dr. King’s alma mater. The volume opens with a chronology of African Americans in chemistry and a biographical interview of McBay by science historian and MIT professor Kenneth R. Manning. Appendices include a list of Dr. McBay's publications and of chemistry majors under him who went on to earn doctoral and medical degrees.

Also included: A chemist's view of gaseous anesthesia -- Novel synthesis of Indol-3-yl acid derivatives -- A theoretical study of the geometric isomers of Cl₂O₂ and their roles in ClO + ClO reaction mechanisms -- A new transport mechanism for conducting polymers -- Dissociation dynamics in the photolysis of C₂H₂ and C₂H at 193.3 nm -- Developing computational analysis methods for multidimensional spectroscopy -- Thermodynamics on one-forms -- Oscillations of antisymmetric quadratic spring system -- [18]Annulene: extrema on the HF/6-31G potential energy surface and evidence for a D₆[subscript h] structure from correlated wavefunctions -- Characterization of polycrystalline diamond films grown using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition -- MX₂ inorganic phases in coal: ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer investigation of löllingite, FeAs₂

About Henry C. McBay

McBay's dedicated service to the fields of chemistry and teaching included developing a treatment for prostate cancer and advancing a chemistry education program in Liberia on behalf of UNESCO in 1951.

Over 50 chemistry majors under McBay's tutelage went on to earn doctoral and medical degrees. At least three came to hold degrees from or were affiliated with MIT: Charles Hubert Smith ScD '82; James Williams Mack PhD '84; and Shirley [Mathis] McBay, who earned two Masters (chemistry and mathematics) from Atlanta University, a PhD in Mathematics from University of Georgia, and became Dean for Student Affairs at MIT in 1980.

Jackson, William M. and Billy Joe Evans, eds. Henry C. McBay: A Chemical Festschrift: Proceedings of a symposium in honor of the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.