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Jane Frommer Collection
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Held at: Science History Institute Archives [Contact Us]315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Science History Institute Archives. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Jane Frommer is an American research chemist and a pioneer researcher in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Frommer earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Tufts University in 1976. While studying at Tufts, she served as a Research Intern at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a Researcher of Vitamin D Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital (1975-1976). She continued her education at the California Institute of Technology, where she earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1980.
After earning her Ph.D., Frommer began her professional career at Allied Corporate Laboratories (now called Honeywell International, Incorporated), where she served as a Research Scientist (1980-1986). At Allied Corporate Laboratories, Frommer created and studied the solution state of electronically conducting organic polymers.
From 1986 to 2018, Frommer served as a Research Scientist at IBM Research, the research and development division of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). At IBM Research, she and her colleagues demonstrated the ability to image and manipulate single molecules with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). She was also involved in a number of other materials research programs at IBM Research, including those involving lithography, 3D nanoprinting, polymers, and biological nanostructures.
Frommer's career at IBM Research was interrupted by a four-year assignment at the University of Basel Physics Institute (1989-1993). At the University of Basel, Frommer and her team expanded the capability of scanning probes into measuring the functional properties of organic thin films with atomic force microscopy (AFM). They also demonstrated AFM's ability to distinguish between different molecular species within monolayers.
Frommer retired from IBM Research in 2018. In her retirement, she served as Associate Editor of Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology and as a scientific advisor to several Silicon Valley startups. She also served as a mentor to high school and college students.
Over the course of her career, Jane Frommer was awarded more than fifty patents and authored more than one hundred refereed science publications. She was also an active member of the American Chemical Society. Frommer was also the recipient of several awards, including the American Chemical Society Award in Industrial Chemistry (2017) and the Society of Chemical Industry's Perkin Medal (2020).
Sources
Jane Frommer Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"Jane Frommer, PhD, to Receive Prestigious 2020 Perkin Medal," SCI America, SCI America – Jane Frommer, PhD, to Receive Prestigious 2020 Perkin Medal (sci-america.org)
"MSE Seminar: From Conducting Polymers to Conducting Molecular Search, A Materials Pathway to the Perkin Medal", University of Pennsylvania Department of Engineering, Penn Engineering Events, MSE Seminar: "From Conducting Polymers to Conducting Molecular Search A Materials Science Pathway to the Perkin Medal" (upenn.edu)
The Jane Frommer Collection contains printed materials regarding scanning probe instruments and scanning probe microscopy collected by American research chemist Jane Frommer. The collection is arranged into the following three series:
- Sales Literature
- Articles
- Newsletters
The Jane Frommer Collection was donated to the Science History Institute by Jane Frommer in June 2022.
The Jane Frommer Collection was processed by Kenton G. Jaehnig in April 2022.
Subject
- Publisher
- Science History Institute Archives
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid created and encoded into EAD by Kenton G. Jaehnig.
- Finding Aid Date
- 2022
- Access Restrictions
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There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes and the collection is open to the public.
- Use Restrictions
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The Science History Institute holds copyright to the Jane Frommer Collection. The researcher assumes full responsibility for all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
Collection Inventory
Arranged alphabetically by company, this series contains sales literature printed by scanning probe instrument manufacturers, which were collected by Jane Frommer. Manufacturers represented in this series include Digital Instruments, Incorporated, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Nanonics Imaging Limited, and Park Scientific Instruments. Many of these materials were given to Frommer by the companies' principals who visited (and sometimes collaborated with) her at IBM Research.
A majority of the materials in this series concern specific scanning probe instruments manufactured by the various firms, including, but not limited to, atomic force microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, scanning tunneling microscopes, and microscopy probes. Smaller, but noticeable, amounts of materials concerning technical aspects of scanning probe microscopy, including, but not limited to, analytical techniques, imaging, and probing, are also preserved here.
The contents of this series consist of a variety of printed sales materials. Brochures, data sheets, sales booklets, and sales articles are the most common items found in this series. Small numbers of other miscellaneous sales materials, including, but not limited to, posters, webpage printouts, and postcards, are preserved here as well.
Arranged alphabetically by subject, this series contains a handful of magazine and journal articles collected by Jane Frommer. The articles preserved in this series concern scanning probe microscopy instruments and methods.
Arranged alphabetically by company and title, this series contains a handful of newsletters collected by Jane Frommer. The newsletters in this series concern scanning probe microscopy instruments and methods, and some miscellaneous activities of a few scanning probe instrument manufacturers.