C&EN: TODAY'S HEADLINES - Dow Donates Data To NIST

DAVID HANSON

The National Institute of Standards & Technology has received a gift of more than 50,000 infrared spectra from Dow Chemical. The data will be evaluated for use in NIST’s Chemistry WebBook, a free online resource for scientists.

The IR spectra were collected over 40 years at Dow to characterize and identify numerous pure chemicals, including many first synthesized by Dow experimentally during product development or for analysis of process measurements. The contribution—250,000 documents—has been independently valued at $5 million.

“This donation is focused on improving the scientific capability of the world,” said Richard M. Gross, Dow corporate vice president for R&D, in making the formal presentation, which was attended by ACS President Elsa Reichmanis, NIST Director Arden L. Bement, Jr. and several dozen government and industry officials.

The donation was received by Commerce Department Deputy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, who emphasized the importance of partnerships between the federal government and industry.

The collection will significantly increase the data in NIST’s WebBook (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/). This database currently contains IR spectra for about 6,000 molecules in the vapor phase and about 10,000 in condensed phase. NIST officials hope that the Dow donation will encourage other companies to donate data.