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Primarily an organic chemist, Noyes worked on the structure of camphor (first to furnish definitive proof of its structure) and rearrangements in the camphor series, the electronic theories of valence, and the valence and nature of nitrogen in nitrogen trichloride. He developed methods for the determination of phosphorus, sulfur, and manganese in iron. Long-time Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (1902-1917), he was also the founder and first Editor of Chemical Abstracts (1907-1910), ACS Scientific Monographs (1919-1941), and Chemical Reviews (1924-1926). In 1935, he received the Priestley Medal. After World War I Noyes worked unsuccessfully to establish harmony between his French and German colleagues and to promote international understanding. He died on October 24, 1941.
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William
Albert Noyes was born on November 6, 1857, on a farm near Independence,
Iowa, the youngest son of Spencer W. Noyes and Mary Noyes. In 1875 he
entered Grinnell College, where he enrolled in classical studies, reading
chemistry on the side, teaching full-time in country schools during the
winter quarters, and graduating with AB and BS degrres in 1879. He taught
and studied analytical chemistry at Grinnell until January, 1881, when
he entered Johns Hopkins to work under Ira Remsen. Although he performed
water analyses to pay his expenses, he still received his PhD degree in
one and a half years (1882). His dissertation, on the oxidation of benzene
with chromic acid, also earned him an AM degree from Grinnell. After various
teaching posts, in 1903 he became the first Chief Chemist at the US National
Bureau of Standards in Baltimore, Maryland, where he determined atomic
weights. His value for the crucial H/O weight ratio (1.00787:16) still
stands today as one of the most precise chemical determinations ever made.
He and H. C. P. Weber received the 1908 Nichols Medal for their determination
of the atomic weight of chlorine. He became Head of the Chemistry Department
(1907-1926) at the University of Illinois, which he built into one of
the most prestigious departments in the United States. 
