Alumnus Dr. Kenrick Lewis (PhD ’77 ) was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Alberta this past June for being one of the most impact chemists of his generation. Lewis's 48 year career has impacted our daily life through transformative innovations in silanes and silicones. One of his nominators said, "Everyone has likely used a product derived from Lewis's chemistry in the last 24 hours."
Dr. Lewis's Honorary Degree conferral and convocation address begin at 32:43 in the video.
In 2021, Dr. Lewis was highlighted as a trailblazer by Organometallics for his career and contributions in Organometallic Chemistry. Dr. Lewis is a pioneer in silicones research which began working with in the late 70’s. Paul J. Chirik, author of "Pioneers and Influencers: A Profile of Dr. Kenrick Lewis" stated, “…in the end, what I think would make Ken happy is knowing that the next time you use a kitchen spatula, caulk your shower, or use any other of a host of silicone products, you might think of him and the teams of chemists that did the creative science to bring them to you.”
The following Alumni Reflection article by Dr. Kenrick Lewis was published in the Summer 2023 issue of the Goessmann Gazette newsletter.
Alumni Reflection: Kenrick M. Lewis PhD'77
My Forty-six Year Career in Industrial Chemistry
Grenada to University of Alberta to UMass Amherst
So, how did I get to UMass Amherst? In the fall of 1970, while I was a student at the University of Alberta (Edmonton), I received letters from many Chemistry Departments in the US congratulating me on my ACS Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry and inviting me to apply for graduate study at their university. One of these letters came from Prof. Sidney Siggia at UMass Amherst. His letter was the most persuasive. My decision on UMass was bolstered by information in the ACS Directory of Chemistry Departments on the Analytical and Inorganic chemistry faculty and their publications. The relative closeness of Amherst to New York City, where I had friends and family, was also a contributing factor. However, before I could apply to UMass to pursue graduate studies, I had to fulfill a major obligation.
I was in Canada on a British Commonwealth scholarship. Initially, I was at Brandon University in Manitoba. I transferred to Alberta in my junior year because of the rigor and prestige of the Chemistry Honors program there. On completion of my baccalaureate (BS, First Class Honors), I was obliged to return home to Grenada and work in the public service. I did so in June 1971 and taught chemistry, mathematics and biology at the St. John’s Christian Secondary School. I had planned to stay the required two years, but the political instability in the island, especially following the general elections on February 28, 1972, influenced my decision to leave early. Applying to graduate school in March was indeed late. However, I wrote to Prof. Siggia and he responded quickly with application forms and lots of information about the department. My academic transcripts and letters of recommendation were sent from the University of Alberta. My letter of acceptance and appointment as a Teaching Assistant was at hand prior to the end of April.
I arrived in Amherst in the late afternoon of Sunday, August 27, 1972. I took up residence at Prince House and looked forward to graduate studies. The previous month was spent with my sister in New York studying for the placement exams and visiting friends and family. In those days, registration was done with punch cards in the old gymnasium. Prof. Siggia was at the chemistry table and he greeted me warmly.
Since I passed the Analytical, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry placement exams, I was able to take graduate level courses in those disciplines straightaway. One afternoon in the Spring of 1973, I was supervising a General Chem lab in Goessmann when I was summoned to Dr. George Richason’s office. On the way to his office on the ground floor of the Lederle Graduate Research Center, I searched my memory for whatever transgression I might have committed. As I entered, he told me to relax and that I hadn't done anything wrong. He then informed me that I had been awarded a University Fellowship for 1973 – 1976. It was the first time that a graduate student in chemistry had received a University Fellowship. There were only a limited number awarded annually. My Teaching Assistantship would end when the semester ended, thus allowing me to focus on research. A few weeks later, Mr. Richason again called me to his office. This time he told me I had been awarded the Polaroid Fellowship for having the most outstanding performance among the first year graduate students. I had received all A’s in my exams in December 1972. However, I was completely unaware that Drs. (Ron) Archer, Siggia, and (Peter) Uden had nominated me for both fellowships.
Prof. Siggia recommended me for summer employment in 1973 and 1974 at the R&D Center of Olin Corp. in New Haven, CT. He was the Director of Research there before joining the UMass faculty. At Olin, I used HPLC/GPC analysis to solve quality problems with extruded PVC pipe and flame-retardant polyurethane foams. That experience enabled me to learn that industrial research must produce financial benefit, not just knowledge advancement.
Between October and December 1972, I requested and obtained meetings with Analytical and Inorganic faculty members to learn about their research and the topics they wished to investigate. I was still undecided in January 1973, when Prof. Archer told me about a proposal that he and Prof. Gawienowski (Biochemistry) had written to investigate the chemistry of the copper intrauterine device (CuIUD) and its possible mechanisms of action. I accepted it straightaway because it involved the analytical, inorganic, and bio chemistry of copper. My passion for these aspects of copper chemistry originated from a lecture by Prof. R. B. Jordan during my senior year at the University of Alberta. The interdisciplinary nature of the research was also attractive. Professors Archer and Uden had recognized my interdisciplinary interests and agreed that my research would include both analytical and inorganic sections.
My dissertation was entitled “Chemistry of the Copper Intrauterine Device: Copper Corrosion and Complexation and the Mechanisms of Action”. The findings were published in The Lancet (August 27, 1977, 458 ), Contraception (1977, 15, 93 - 104 ) and Steroids (1979, 34, 485 - 499), not the usual journals for publications by an inorganic chemist. 1
Friends and Lab Mates
The Lederle Graduate Research Center was first occupied in January 1973. The Inorganic labs were on the fourth and fifth floors. Professors Archer and (Oliver) Zajicek were on the fourth floor and Holmes, George and Wood on the fifth. Grad students at that time included Don Dollberg, Wan Su Kwak, Craig Donohue, Bill Rozelle, Marv Illingsworth, Christine Crumm, Bruce Waldman, Imogene Bigley, Paul Clark, Miguel Angel Desoto Pareira, Virginia Creedon, John Marhevka, Eugene Martin, Jeff Gere and Meredith Findlay. There were, however, other students who were often on the fourth floor. Barb Foster was one. She was a high school chemistry teacher from Springfield who took a sabbatical to pursue a master’s degree in Microscopy/Polymer Science with Prof. Marion Rhodes. She has since established a successful business providing training and instruction in microscopy and microscopy education (MME).
Barb’s dad, Dr. Lawrence Litz, was a Corporate Research Fellow at Union Carbide in Tarrytown. In April 1976, following a visit to her parents in Pleasantville, NY, Barb told me that I should send my resume to her dad and provided his mailing address. Quite astonished, I asked what her dad knew about me. She responded that she told him everything he needed to know. I thanked her and promised to send the resume. A month passed. “Ken, my dad said he has not received your resume.” I acknowledged my procrastination and treated the matter with urgency thereafter. Dr. Litz circulated my resume to different groups within Union Carbide at Tarrytown. My invitation for an on-site interview arrived in late June and the interview occurred in mid-July. The job offer came a few weeks later. Barb’s helpful initiative was directly responsible for that. I have thanked her on numerous occasions.
Meredith Findlay was a very dear friend. She had degrees in and passion for both chemistry and music. Her research, supervised by Prof. Chen, was on Synthesis and Characterization of Cyctochrome C derivatives. We went to the orchestral and drama performances on campus as well as to operas in Boston and New York. After graduation, she worked at 3M, Engelhard and Ciba-Geigy before going to Law School to become a patent attorney. Quite coincidentally, she was hired in that capacity at Union Carbide at the Danbury, CT, headquarters. She had recently moved to M & T Chemicals in New Jersey when she was killed in a head-on automobile accident in February 1989. She lives on in the memories of her colleagues and classmates.
Jeff Gere and I became friends during the first week of graduate school. Later, we were roommates at the Puffton Apartments. His dad was a Political Science professor on campus. The entire Gere family was welcoming and very hospitable to me. Jeff’s doctoral research in organic photochemistry was directed by Prof. Hixson. After graduation, he joined the US Army and had a very successful career in biomedical research.
Art Strohl was a chemistry graduate student and a member of the graduate senate. Through his advocacy, the Graduate Chemists’ Association (of which I was President and he, vice President) obtained funds to support a seminar series separate from that organized by the department. The key distinction was that the invitee would give a seminar and converse afterwards with the students, not the faculty. Prof. Roald Hoffmann from Cornell was our most memorable invitee. Our after dinner conversations at the Top of The Campus lasted until closing time. He told us about his family’s flight from Poland during WWII and that his birth surname was Safran, not Hoffmann. He asked us about our research and career interests and offered helpful comments. He was quite intrigued by the subject of my research.
In 1982, I attended my niece’s graduation at Cornell and met Prof. Hoffmann. He actually remembered me. I introduced him to my family members and they were elated at meeting a Nobel Prize winner. In 2001, I chaired the Organizing Committee of the 34th North American Silicon Symposium in White Plains. NY. Prof. Hoffmann accepted my invitation to be the after dinner speaker. The Symposium featured a History and Retrospective Session, during which invited speakers from academic and industrial laboratories recounted the path to some significant 20th century discoveries in organosilicon chemistry. Their stories are archived here: “Some Notable Discoveries in Organosilicon Chemistry: Proceedings of the History and Retrospective Session of the 34th Organosilicon Symposium (2001)” by Adrian G. Brook, Robert West et al. (uwo.ca) bit.ly/3GoE9NX
I had been in Amherst about two weeks when I met Dr. Godwin Oyewole, manager of WFCR, the NPR-affiliated radio station on campus It was adjacent to Herter Hall along that long walkway leading to the library. His greeting was, “you must be new here. I don’t know you.” I confirmed that I was indeed new to the campus, a grad student in chemistry and that I was from Grenada. We exchanged phone numbers. He told me that there were two Grenadian graduate students (Eddie Commissiong and Reginald Buckmire) in Food Science and invited me to a picnic organized by some foreign students that weekend. I attended, met Eddie and Reggie and many other students with whom I continued to socialize during my stay in Amherst.
Godwin was Nigerian. He had a weekly program, Mbari Mbayo, on African and Caribbean News, Music and Information. In 1974, I accepted his invitation to co-produce the program. I continued to do so until 1981. I drove from New York to Amherst on weekends to do live shows at noon on Sundays and record programs for later airing. Our friendship continued even after Godwin moved to Washington D.C in 1978. He went to Law School and later, practiced law there. Simultaneously, he revived Mbari Mbayo on WDCU and I joined him a few times for broadcasts on Saturday afternoons.
Career Highlights
When, on January 17, 1977, I began working in the Linde Division of Union Carbide Corp. in Tarrytown, NY, I had no idea that forty-six years later I would still be working in Tarrytown, albeit with a different corporate entity. In fact, I have worked for at least seven corporate entities without ever having been relocated—the company changed names many times over years2. Throughout these dizzying mergers and acquisitions, my colleagues and I maintained our focus on safety, innovation, high productivity and quality and excellence. C&EN May 7, 2007 reported that we “took all the changes in stride.”
In Linde, I researched novel industrial applications of chelation in hydrometallurgy and waste-treatment. A foam separation method employing chelating surfactants was successfully applied to the demetallation of electroplating wastes in the laboratory. In other work, an unusual ozone-induced migration of thallium from the cages to the exterior surface of zeolites was discovered during studies whose objective was to find new industrial chemical uses for oxygen and ozone. That work was published in Inorganic Chemistry in 1981.
Since 1979, my research has centered on catalytic reactions of silicon and silicon compounds. The results are disclosed in fifty-seven issued US Patents and sixty-seven publications and presentations. Some of the patents and publications arose from collaborations with academic colleagues in the US and Europe. I am co-editor of the monograph, Catalyzed Direct Reactions of Silicon, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1993. I have also written a recent article on the History of Hydrosilylation,“1946 and the Early History of Hydrosilylation” bit.ly/3ZM1e3Y.
There have been other UMass Amherst chemistry graduates here at Tarrytown. Bruce Waldman (PhD Uden) started in the Silanes & Silicones Business Unit about a year before me. He also experienced the many corporate changes mentioned above. Jodi Veccharelli (PhD Uden) was a chromatographer here briefly in the 1990’s. We worked together on HPLC/GPC analysis of silicone surfactants. Uche Anyanwu (PhD DV) joined in 2006. His career was cut short by illness. He passed away in 2012. Dr. Shreedhar Bhat was a post doc in Prof. Thayumanavan’s group. He was hired for a position in Bangalore when we were in GE. He and I collaborated closely on silicone materials for contact lens and are co-inventors on a number of patents. Dave Schlitzer, Jennifer David, Patricia Anderson, and Jeff Hallen are UMASS (Amherst) graduates from Polymer Science and Chemical Engineering who are located at our Waterford, NY, site.
Conclusion
Clearly, UMass prepared me for a career in industrial research finding impactful solutions to chemistry-based problems. My contributions have advanced fundamental knowledge about catalytic reactions of silicon and silicon compounds. They have also generated enduring financial value to the companies and I have benefitted reputationally.
I have been an invited and plenary speaker at many domestic and international silicon chemistry conferences and symposia. I have also participated in the organization of many of these meetings. The international locations have been as diverse as Tromso (Norway), Shandong (China) and Zacatecas (Mexico). Travel to these, as well as to the global sites of the Momentive, have broadened my cross-cultural experiences and enabled enduring friendships with colleagues even after they retired or resigned. The same can be said for the friendships forged with colleagues and international students I met at UMass Amherst.
Many friends, family members, lab assistants, collaborators, teachers, mentors and advisers have contributed to my successes and my development. While I thank them all for their support and guidance, some deserve special mention due to the impact of their tutelage and mentoring. They are Prof. Dallas Rabenstein at the University of Alberta (now at UC Riverside), from UMass, Prof. Siggia, Prof. Uden and Prof. Archer, and from Union Carbide, Dr. Bernie Kanner, Dr. Lawerence Litz and Dr. Anthony Bolton.
Lewis's notable discoveries and inventions include:
- Discovery of methylchlorosilylene (CH3SiCl) as the key intermediate leading to formation of dimethyldichlorosilane ((CH3)2SiCl2)) in the Rochow – Müller Direct Synthesis of methylchlorosilanes
- Use of nanosized copper in the direct synthesis of organosilanes
- Silicone surfactants for polyurethane foams blown with non-CFC blowing agents
Awards and recognitions include:
- Pioneer and Influencer, Organometallics, February 2021
- Distinguished Scientist of the Year, Westchester Chemical Society subsection of the American Chemical Society, April 2015
- Key Contributor, 1999 Kirkpatrick Award for Innovation in the Chemical Process Industries to OSi Specialties, Crompton Corporation, for Direct Synthesis of Trimethoxysilane (Chemical Engineering, November 1999)
1 Clinically removed Cu-7 IUDs were provided by Dr. Zwirek (of Amherst Medical Associates and Hampden County Gynecologists). Analysis of twenty-three of them revealed that copper (I) oxide was the major component of the corrosion layer. Extensive calcium carbonate formation was found on devices which had been removed because of pregnancy. Of all the possible mechanisms of action, inhibition of estrogen-receptor binding by copper seemed most likely to result in a reliable antifertility effect.
2 In January 1979, I transferred from Linde to the Silanes & Silicones Business Unit of Union Carbide. The Business was sold to DLJ Merchant Bankers in September 1993 and renamed OSi Specialties, Inc. Witco Corporation purchased OSi Specialties in September 1995. Witco Corporation merged with Crompton and Knowles in September 1999 and became CKWitco Corp. The company’s name was changed to Crompton Corporation in March 2000. GE acquired OSi Specialties from Crompton in August 2003 and it became part of GE Advanced Materials. GE sold this business to Apollo Management in December 2006. For a brief period, it was merged with Hexion, another Apollo-owned company. It is now called Momentive Performance Materials and is owned by KCC, a Korean company.