BRODE, WALLACE REED

(b. Walla Walla, Washington, 12 June 1900; d. Washington, D.C., 10 August 1974)

organic chemistry.

Brode came of age in science at a time when the secrets of its synthetic chemical industry had been wrested from Germany through war and the bases of the quantum behavior of light were being divulged by physicists to chemists. He matured as a scientific spokesman at a time when scientific policy was at the forefront of national concern. He made important contributions in all these areas.

Brode was a son of Howard S. Brode. professor of zoologs at Whitman College in Walla Walla, and of Catherine Bigham. He and his brothers (he was a triplet) all became professional scientists. Brode was trained in the sciences at Whitman College (B, S., 1921) and then at the University of Illinois, where he received the Ph.D. (1925). His work was done in Roger Adams’ department, then distinguished for its work in organic chemistry. He married lone Sundstrom on 19 March 1941.

Brode was swept up in the program to investigate synthetic dyes that Adams had originated, and took advantage of personal connections in the National Bureau of Standards to prosecute his dissertation work there, using spectrophotometry apparatus not available at the University of Illinois. He spent the three years after earning the B.S. (1921–1924) as a chemist at the Bureau of Standards.

The receipt of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1926–1928) pet muted Brode to study at Leipzig with Arthur Hantzsch, a pioneer in the study of geometric isomerism and of the structure of nitrogenous organic compounds: at Zurich with victor Henri, a pioneer in photochemistry who had discovered predissociation as a result of the absorption of light quanta: and at Liverpool with Edward C. C. Baly. an early student of the chemistry of photosynthesis. Brode’s career as a government scientist was interrupted not only by his fellowship but also by an academic career spanning some twenty years (1928–1948) at Ohio State University, where he carried out a program in spectroscopy of organic compounds and was professor from 1939.

Among other things, Brode and his students clarified the influence of substituents on the absorption spectra of azo dyes, phototropic effects in the conversion of isomers of azo dyes to isomers of indigo dyes, absorption spectra of cobaltous and ferric compounds, and the relations between the optical rotation or absorption spectra and the chemical constitution of dyes, He built automatic recording spectrophotometers and spectropolarimeters needed in this work, offered a course in chemical spectroscopy, and wrote a textbook, Chemical Spectroscopy (1939).

Brode made broader contributions to pedagogy by devising the molecular models that came to be a mainstay of organic chemistry instruction. The laboratory manual that accompanied these models went through several editions.

During World War II. Brode worked for the Office of Scientific Research and Development. He set up a control laboratory for the Defense Plant Corporation, and served as a project leader for the War Metallurgy Committee and as a consultant on infrared filters in Division 16 of the National Defense Research Committee. In 1944 he was posted to London to serve as head of the OSRD liaison office, and served in the same capacity in Paris the following year.

After the war Brode became chief scientist at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (now the Naval-Weapons Center) at Inyokern, California, where he planned the Michelson Laboratory and recruited its civilian staff. Although he returned briefly thereafter to Ohio State, he was soon remobilized by Vannevar Bush to head the scientific branch of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Because of the secret nature of the undertaking. Brode solicited the “cover” title of associate director of the National Bureau of Standards from its director, Edward Condon. When he sought to return to Ohio State after a year spent building up the scientific branch at the CIA, Condon insisted he actually assume the position of associate director.

At the National Bureau of Standards. Brode resumed studies of the photochemistry of organic compounds and made comparative studies of commercial spectrophotometers that were replacing the home-built ones he and others had long used. His experience overseas and with the CIA made him a prime candidate for the post of science adviser to the Department of State, which was created in the wake of Sputnik, Appointed by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in 1958. he served for two years, building up a staff of science attaches for American embassies.

Brode’s contributions to science and policy were recognized by his election to the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1958, of the Optical Society of America in 196L and of the American Chemical Society in 1969. He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1954. In his role as spokesman for science. Brode questioned the uneven support for science characteristic of the pluralistic postwar scientific establishment, and argued for the creation of a department of science to coordinate government research. He was the editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America from 1950 to 1960 and of the Science in Progress series of Sigma Xi lectures from 1962 to 1966.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Among Brode’s more than 200 scientific articles are the following summary reviews of his work: “Chemical Spectroscopy,” in Frontiers in Chemistry, 4 (1945). 69–95: “Spectrophotometry and Colorimetry,” in W. G. Berle, ed., Physical Methods in Chemical Analysis (New York, 1950), 194–253: “Color and Chemical Constitution,” in George A. Baitsell, ed., Science in Progress, 9th ser. (New Haven, 1955), 293–323; and “Steric Effects in Dyes.” in The Roger Adams Symposium… University of Illinois September 3 and 4, 1954 (New York. 1955), 8–59. His textbook. Chemical Spectroscopy (New York. 1939: 2nd ed., 1943, 1949). and laboratory manual. Laboratory Outlines and Notebook for Organic Chemistry (1949), also reflect this work.

II. Secondary Literature. The most informative articles on Brode are in McGraw-Hill Modern Men of Science, II (New York, 1968), 53–54, and McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers, 11 (New York. 1980). 141–143; and “Spectroscopist of the Month: Dr. Wallace R. Brode,” in Arcs and Sparks, 9 (March 1963), 17–19. Theresearch program at Illinois is discussed in Robert Kohler, “Adams, Roger,” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XV (New York. 1980), I-3. Brode discussed his work with defense agencies in A. B. Christman, “Interview: Dr. Wallace Brode, May 1969 re Early NOTS,” NWC/7520I-S-66.

Robert Seidel