James Bohning - Former Director of Oral History of the Chemical Heritage Foundation 

• Research focus - The history of chemistry

Education:

Professional Experience

Research Areas:
Jim is a historian of chemistry and has taught Lehigh students scientific writing skills under the auspices of the CESAR program.  His students recently completed research posters on 19th Century Chemistry at Lehigh.  The main focus of Dr. Bohning's work at Lehigh is the history/biography of Eckley Brinton Coxe.  Coxe was a board member at Lehigh, the founder of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and a coal baron with unusual interests in science and engineering.

Representative Publications:

1. "Integration of Chemical History into the Chemical Literature Course," Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, 24 (1984): 101-107.
   

2. "Hoyt C. Hottel: MIT's Combustion and Solar Energy Pioneer," Chemical Engineering Progress, 84 (1988): 73-77.
   

3. "The 1893 World's Congress of Chemists: A Center of Crystallization in a Molecular Melange," Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, No. 3 (1989): 16-21.
   

4. "Stones That Burn: The Origins of Anthracite in the Wyoming Valley," The Wilkes College History of the Wyoming Valley Lecture Series: An Anthology (Wilkes-Barre, PA: The Wilkes College Press, 1989): 63-84.
   

5. "Live Guinea Pigs and Dead Cylinders: Roy Plunkett and the Discovery of Teflon," Today's Chemist at Work, 1, No. 1 (1992): 62-64.
   

6. The First Century of Chemical Engineering: A Timeline Of Discoveries and Achievements (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1993). Edited and produced by Frances Kohler and designed by Sylvia Barkan.
   

7. "Gerhard Herzberg," "Herbert A. Hauptman," "Jerome Karle," and "Rudolph A. Marcus," in Laylin K. James, ed. Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 1901-1992 (Washington DC: American Chemical Society, 1993); 525-531, 674-677, 678-685, 766-771.
   

8. "An American Mecca: A Legacy of Joseph Priestley to American Chemistry," Proceedings and Addresses of the Northumberland County Historical Society
   , 32 (1994): ix-xii.

9. "The Chemical Revolution," International Historic Chemical Landmark, Paris, France (Washington DC: American Chemical Society, June 1999).
   

10. "The Discovery of Helium in Natural Gas," International Historic Chemical Landmark, Lawrence, Kansas (Washington DC: American Chemical Society, April 2000)
    

11.  "Aaron Ihde: A Life on Bascom’s Hill," Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, No. 26 (2001) : 3-14.