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History of Chemistry in The Dow Chemical Company
Founded in 1897, The Dow Chemical Company has been a high-tech research-oriented company. The first 50 years were dominated by Herbert Henry Dow, the founder of the company, and his son Willard. Each was a strong and dynamic leader. Each had research reporting directly to him. The second 50 years witnessed the growth of research and development bya management team.
During the first 100 years of Dow’s existence its research evolved through several years. For the first 20 years Dow was primarily an inorganic chemicals company and research was concerned with chemicals from brine. Twenty years later organic chemistry was on the front burner, followed closely by polymer chemistry which today still reigns supreme.

Willard Dow – expandingDow’s research capabilities
During the Depression in 1930, Herbert H. Dow died and his son Willard became the president. Many industrial establishments were closing down their research activities at that time, but not Dow. Willard Dow made the decision to expand Dow’s research. Like his father, he believed in research and innovation. Top talent was now available to Dow since other companies hadgreatly reduced their campus recruiting.
Global expansión
By the mid 1950´s the company began its bold move toward global expansion, establishing manufacturing plants throughout the world. In 1965, Dow sets-up “technology centers”, to insure that the newest and best technology was available at each Dow location. These were repositories of know-how. As manufacturing expanded, R&D expanded too.Gradually R&D became more directed toward product lines and more aligned with business activities. By 1980 most of the long range basic research laboratories in Midland were consolidated into a core group called Central Research where many of them are today.
In my remarks I will examine only a fraction of the thousands of research projects involving Dow scientists. Likewise, time permits meto mention but a few of the important laboratories that have come and gone over the years. I will also recognize a small number of highly regarded Dow scientists and name a few individuals who have passed through the Dow research organizations on their way to other areas of importance.
Herbert H. Dow in the Lab

When one talks about the history of research at Dow, one must start with Mr.Herbert Henry Dow. The Dow Chemical Company exists only because of Mr. Dow’s research, his ideas, his foresight, his drive and his perseverance. Mr. Dow was a chemist - a most unusual, talented and determined chemist. His success is based on research first done in 1888 on an idea he had for recovering bromine from brine by electrolysis. Those early studies were done before he had finished his universitystudies.
Bromine was of interest in those days because it was the main component of many of the patent medicines, as a disinfectant, and as an ingredient in films for the emerging photographic industry. Its availability was controlled by European cartels.
Mr. Dow graduated in June 1888 from the Case Institute of Applied Science (now known as Case Western Reserve University) at the age of 22with a solid background in chemistry and engineering. His graduating class numbered six. The school had seven faculty and 44 students. One of his professors, formerly of Harvard, was renowned for his knowledge of petroleum and electro-chemistry. Another was noted for his determination of the ratio of the atomic weights of oxygen and hydrogen.

Albert Michelson - Nobel Prize recipient in PhysicsDow’s physics professor, Albert Michelson, was the first to measure the speed of light and in 1907 became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Albert Einstein once stated that it was Michelson’s work that opened the way for his theory of relativity.
Mr. Dow’s thesis “Composition of Salt Brine in Northern Ohio with Special
Reference to Bromine and Lithium Content” was presented...