University Relations and Communications, 715-346-3046, Fax 715-346-2042, http://www.uwsp.edu/news
Alfred Bader, founder of the Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Company in Milwaukee, will present three lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) April 1 – 3. The lectures will touch on the history of the Aldrich Chemical company, the joys of collecting art and his personal art collection, and how scientific discovery as a chemist can be a life-changing experience. All lectures are open to the public free of charge.
On Wednesday, April 1, Bader will discuss the history of the Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Company at 7:30 p.m. in Room A121 of the Science Building. Bader will offer advice to young chemists who want to begin their own companies. Bader founded the Aldrich Company in 1951 with an initial investment of $500. The company has since grown to over $1 billion in annual sales. The company merged with Sigma in 1975 and now employs over 6,000 people worldwide and is the largest supplier of research chemicals in the world. The presentation is hosted by the Central Wisconsin Section of the American Chemical Society.
The second lecture, hosted by the UWSP Academy of Letters and Science and the College of Fine Arts and Communication, will be held Thursday, April 2, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 221 of the Noel Fine Arts Center. Bader will give an overview of his art collection and acquisitions. He began his love of art at age 10 with his own drawings and paintings. Later in life he began collecting art, mostly Dutch pieces and then Italian works.
Bader’s last lecture will be held Friday, April 3, at 2 p.m. in Room A121 of the Science Building. He will take a historical look back at three 19th and 20th century chemists who he believes deserve more historical credit for their early research generations ago. This lecture is sponsored by the College of Letters and Science and the Chemistry Department.
The three chemists are August Kelule (1829-1896), Archibald Scott Couper of Scotland, and Austrian Josef Loschmidt who published a book, “Chemsiche Studien,” in 1861. Kelule was one of Germany’s greatest 19th century chemists who discovered that carbon can bond to carbon, as well as discovering that benzene had a cyclic structure. Couper’s paper, “On a New Chemical Theory,” was published in 1929.
Born in Vienna, Bader, at age fourteen, fled to England months prior to the outbreak of World War II. In 1941 he began his studies in engineering chemistry at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He then received a fellowship in organic chemistry at Harvard where he received his doctorate in 1950. Later in life he became a successful art dealer and is president of Alfred Bader Fine Arts.
