Herman Skolnik

Herman Skolnik (1914-1994) was a US specialist in chemical documentation.

Life

Herman Skolnik was born in 1914 and grew up in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He earned a BS in chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University in 1937 and MS (1941) and PhD degrees (1943) in physical organic chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1942 he joined Hercules, Inc., in Wilmington, Delaware, as a Research chemist, 1942-45; Supervisor literary research, 1946-51; Manager, Technical Services Division from 1952 until he retired in 1979. After his retirement he became active in the American Chemical Society ChemVets program promoting the recruitment of retired chemist as teachers at the elementary and secondary school levels. He died December 29, 1994.

Contributions

Skolnik was a co-founder of the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society.
He edited the Journal of Chemical Documentation (after 1975 Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science) from 1960 to 1982.
Skolnik developed a formulated index in 1958 which cited elements in alphabetical order by their symbols with carbon and hydrogen last. He introduced notation systems with Clow in 1964 and his own 1969.

Publications

Skolnik reportedly published some 200 technical papers. Many are listed in Google Scholar. [1]

Multi-sulfur and sulfur and oxygen five- and six-membered heterocycles. With D. S. Breslow. New York: Interscience Publishers, 1966. 2 v. Also 2009.
"The multiterm index: a new concept in information storage and retrieval." Journal of Chemical Documentation 10, no. 2 (1970): 81-84.
"Literature Chemists-From the Past to the Present." Journal of Chemical Documentation 14, no. 4 (1974): 157-158.
A Century of chemistry: the role of chemists and the American Chemical Society. Herman Skolnik, chairman, board of editors ; Kenneth M. Reese, editor. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1976.
"Milestones in chemical information science." Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences 16, no. 4 (1976): 187-193.
"Historical development of abstracting." Journal of Chemical information and computer sciences 19, no. 4 (1979): 215-218.
"Historical highlights in the chemical engineering literature." In: A Century of chemical engineering, ed. by William F. Furter. New York: Plenum Press, 1982.
The literature matrix of chemistry. New York: Wiley, 1982.

Offices

American Chemical Society. Division of Chemical Information, Chairman 1961; Delaware Section, Chairman, 1962.

Awards

American Chemical Society. The Patterson-Crane award for contributions to the field of chemical literature, especially the documentation of chemistry.
American Chemical Society. Division of Chemical Information awards the Herman Skolnik Award annually "to recognize outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science". It was first awarded to him for being founder and editor of the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, inventor of a notation system. [2] [3]

Papers

Science History Institute Archives. Philadelphia. Collection 2003-621: Papers of Herman Skolnik, 1947-1994. [5]