Studies in Electroanalytical Chemistry: The Development of a Mercury Chloride Film Anode and Chronopotentiometric Studies in Aqueous and Non-aqueous Solutions. (1959)
During his career, Kuwana mentored more than 70 graduate students.
Early life and education
Theodore Kuwana, a son of Japanese immigrant (Issei) parents Yoshino and Nenokichi Kuwana, was born August 3, 1931, in
Idaho Falls, Idaho, in the United States.[1][2]
Kuwana wrote, "I was the youngest of six children; my parents were immigrant
tenant potato farmers... When I was 10 and 12, I lost my father and mother, respectively, to cancer. Early on, mother had said, 'You must go to college.' I was the only one in our family to do so."[3] His interest in chemistry started while he was in elementary school, when he was given a
Gilbertchemistry set one Christmas. In high school he won the
Bausch & Lomb Medal for Excellence in chemistry.[3]
Kuwana's baccalaureate degree in 1954 was from
Antioch College where with R.G. Yalman he published his first research article in a major journal.[4] His M.S. in 1956 was from
Cornell University.[2] Kuwana earned his Ph.D. in 1959 at the
University of Kansas, with a dissertation titled, Studies in Electroanalytical Chemistry: The Development of a Mercury Chloride Film Anode and Chronopotentiometric Studies in Aqueous and Non-aqueous Solutions, supervised by
Ralph N. Adams.[5]
In 1965, Kuwana wed Jane Bader.[6] Because she understood the chemistry and was also a talented writer and editor, she edited his writings. The couple had a son, a daughter, and four granddaughters.[2]
Career
After postdoctoral training with Fred Anson at
California Institute of Technology, Kuwana briefly worked at an aerospace firm[3] before he went to the
University of California, Riverside, in 1960 as a visiting assistant professor.[7] He became an associate professor at Case Institute of Technology (now
Case Western Reserve University) in 1965, and a full professor there in 1968. From 1971–1986 he was on the faculty of
Ohio State University. Kuwana joined the faculty at the
University of Kansas in 1986, becoming Regents Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and the Director of the Center for Bioanalytical Research.[8]
The origin of spectroelectrochemistry at an OTE [optically transparent electrode] appears to date from a conversation held at the University of Kansas in the late 1950's between young assistant professor Ralph Adams and his first graduate student Ted Kuwana. As recalled by Kuwana, Adams, while observing the production of an intense yellow color in the solution near a platinum
anode during the oxidation of
o-tolidine commented that "...it would be nice to have a 'see through' electrode to spectrally identify the colored species being formed..." Later, Kuwana obtained samples of a conducting glass (
antimony doped tin oxide-coated glass), and the first spectroelectrochemistry at an OTE was performed on o-tolidine.
Now equipped with a "see through" electrode, Kuwana and his students used these conducting glass OTEs for the first spectroelectrochemical experiments of electrogenerated solution species. Graduate student Keith Darlington and undergraduate student Don Leedy performed the experiments using o-tolidine, a colorless compound that undergoes a 2-electron oxidation to form an intensely yellow colored species – the very reaction that Kuwana studied as a graduate student at Kansas that sparked Adams' prophetic comment. They monitored formation of the yellow species at 437 nm using a constant anodic current (i. e., chronopotentiometry – a technique that was more commonly used at the time than it is now) and reported the results in their classic 1964 paper.
— William R. Heineman, Nicholas Winograd, William B. Jensen[12]
Describing Kuwana's "profound impact on
analytical chemistry education", Wenzel, et al., wrote that Kuwana set up a series of workshops with industrial leaders to evaluate the undergraduate analytical sciences curriculum and design improvements. The main recommendation from the workshop participants was that "the undergraduate analytical sciences curriculum needed to engage students in problem-based experiences in the classroom and laboratory portion of courses."[13]
The workshop participants also recommended a digital library of resources and links to resources for instructors designing problem-based learning for lectures and laboratories. Kuwana partnered with the
American Chemical Society, Division of
Analytical Chemistry, to set up a partnership for educational outreach. The
Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL) was formed, and it was supported with funding from the
National Science Foundation.[13] Kuwana served as managing director. Editor
Cynthia Larive acknowledged "the leadership and continued contributions of Professor Emeritus Ted Kuwana, University of Kansas, to the development and continued evolution of the ASDL project".[14]
According to Richard L. McCreery, "Ted Kuwana was not only a scientific leader in
electrochemistry and related fields, but he was also an excellent citizen and unselfish contributor to the careers of many other scientists, myself included."[15] Over his career, Kuwana advised and mentored 73 graduate students.[16]
Kuwana died of pneumonia in
Seattle on January 1, 2022, at age 90 years.[2]
Selected publications
Articles
Kuwana, Theodore.; Darlington, R. K.; Leedy, D. W. (September 1, 1964). "Electrochemical Studies Using Conducting Glass Indicator Electrodes". Analytical Chemistry. 36 (10): 2023–2025.
doi:
10.1021/ac60216a003.
ISSN0003-2700.
Hansen, W. N.; Osteryoung, R. A.; Kuwana, Theodore (March 1966). "Internal Reflection Spectroscopic Observation of Electrode-Solution Interface". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 88 (5): 1062–1063.
doi:
10.1021/ja00957a040.
ISSN0002-7863.
Hansen, Wilford Nels.; Kuwana, Theodore.; Osteryoung, Robert A. (December 1, 1966). "Observation of electrode-solution interface by means of internal reflection spectrometry". Analytical Chemistry. 38 (13): 1810–1821.
doi:
10.1021/ac50155a035.
ISSN0003-2700.
Kuwana, Theodore; Bublitz, Donald E.; Hoh, George (November 1960). "Chronopotentiometric Studies on the Oxidation of Ferrocene, Ruthenocene, Osmocene and Some of their Derivatives 1". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 82 (22): 5811–5817.
doi:
10.1021/ja01507a011.
ISSN0002-7863.
Hawkridge, Fred M.; Kuwana, Theodore. (June 1, 1973). "Indirect coulometric titration of biological electron transport components". Analytical Chemistry. 45 (7): 1021–1027.
doi:
10.1021/ac60329a038.
ISSN0003-2700.
PMID4356378.
Lin, Albert W. C.; Armstrong, Neal R.; Kuwana, Theodore. (July 1, 1977). "X-ray photoelectron/Auger electron spectroscopic studies of tin and indium metal foils and oxides". Analytical Chemistry. 49 (8): 1228–1235.
doi:
10.1021/ac50016a042.
ISSN0003-2700.
Tse, Daniel Chi-Sing.; Kuwana, Theodore. (August 1, 1978). "Electrocatalysis of dihydronicotinamide adenosine diphosphate with quinones and modified quinone electrodes". Analytical Chemistry. 50 (9): 1315–1318.
doi:
10.1021/ac50031a030.
ISSN0003-2700.
Jaegfeldt, Hans; Kuwana, Theodore; Johansson, Gillis (April 1983). "Electrochemical stability of catechols with a pyrene side chain strongly adsorbed on graphite electrodes for catalytic oxidation of dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 105 (7): 1805–1814.
doi:
10.1021/ja00345a021.
ISSN0002-7863.
Kuwana was honored with a special tribute issue of the journal Electroanalysis, "in recognition of his 50+ years of seminal contributions to the fields of
electroanalytical chemistry, spectroelectrochemistry,
analytical and
bioanalytical chemistry, and analytical chemistry education."[25]
The Kuwana & Sawyer Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry Fund has been established to finance scholarships at the University of California, Riverside, for undergraduates "conducting research or studies in analytical chemistry, with preference to those pursuing the field of electrochemistry".[26]
^Yalman, Richard G.; Kuwana, Theodore (April 1955). "Properties of Acidocobaltammines. III. cis-Nitritotetrammines". The Journal of Physical Chemistry. 59 (4): 298–300.
doi:
10.1021/j150526a005.
ISSN0022-3654.
^Heineman, William R.; Winograd, Nicholas; Jensen, William B. (December 2022). "Spectroelectrochemistry Using Optically Transparent Electrodes – Ted Kuwana and the Early Years". Electroanalysis. 34 (12): 1826–1833.
doi:
10.1002/elan.202100493.
ISSN1040-0397.
S2CID240601492.
^Heineman, William R.; Winograd, Nicholas; Jensen, William B. (December 2022). "Spectroelectrochemistry Using Optically Transparent Electrodes – Ted Kuwana and the Early Years". Electroanalysis. 34 (12): 1826–1833.
doi:
10.1002/elan.202100493.
ISSN1040-0397.
S2CID240601492.
^US 4487669, Kuwana, Theodore, "Method for oxidation of and element in both compartments of and electrolytic cell", published 1984-12-11, assigned to
Koppers Co., Inc.
^US 5031449, Kuwana, Theodore; Marioli, Juan & Zadeii, Javad, "Electrochemical detector for liquid chromatographic analysis of carbohydrates", published 1991-07-16, assigned to
Shimadzu Corp.
^"ACS Fellows". American Chemical Society. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
^"Electroanalysis: Dedicated to the Memory of Theodore "TK" Kuwana". Electroanalysis. 34 (12): elan.202281201. December 12, 2022.
doi:
10.1002/elan.202281201.