UNL’s Department of Chemistry and the Nebraska local section of the American Chemical Society will celebrate the life and career of pioneering University of Nebraska chemist Rachel Lloyd Oct. 1-2 with a banquet and a conference.
At the banquet on Oct. 1, UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Mark Griep, associate professor of chemistry at UNL, will reveal the contents of the Avery Hall time capsule, which was recovered in May in search of a second photo of Lloyd.
Marinda Wu, immediate past president of the American Chemical Society, will also present a bronze plaque to the UNL chemistry department from the National Historic Landmark program that designates Lloyd as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. It is Nebraska’s first National Historic Chemical Landmark.
Lloyd, a professor at NU from 1887 to 1894, was hired when it was rare for a woman to become a university professor in any field, but especially in science because women were not allowed to earn graduate degrees. Her research helped lay the foundation for Nebraska’s sugar beet industry by showing that beets grown almost anywhere in Nebraska had sufficient sugar content to turn a profit. This finding immediately led to the construction of the nation’s third sugar beet factory in Grand Island in 1890. Lloyd also inspired a generation of young men and women to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemistry.
Activities will conclude Oct. 2 with the Rachel Lloyd Memorial Conference on Women in Science at the Nebraska Union with talks by six scientists who work in industry and academia.
