NIH Eminent Scientist Profiles

William Mansfield Clark, Ph.D., headed one of our oldest laboratories, the Laboratory of Chemistry in the Hygienic Laboratory, a precursor of the NIH, from 1920 to 1927. He conducted basic studies on oxidation reduction and the health hazards of tetraethyl lead, part of the foundation of today's research on industrial and environmental hazards of toxic substances. He left the NIH to become the head of physiological chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr. Clark was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1928.

The Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum has gathered the following resources concerning Dr. Clark:

NIH Publications
• Announcement of 75th anniversary of lab in NIH Record, 1980: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/PDF_Archive/1980%20PDFs/19800610.pdf
• Mention in Notable Contributions to Medical Research by Public Health Service, 1960: https://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/Notable_Cont_Med_Research.pdf

Journal Publications
• Mentioned in "Vignettes of Medical School During the War in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2002: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/26152
• Imaginary conversation with Clark in Annals of Clinical Lab Science, 1974: http://www.annclinlabsci.org/content/4/4/213.full.pdf
• Tribute by W. Barry Wood in Journal of Bacteriology, 1964: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC277088/.

Non-journal Publications
• Biography for American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2015: http://www.asbmb.org/uploadedfiles/AboutUs/ASBMB_History/Past_Presidents/1930s/1933Clark.html
• Biography in finding aid in American Philosophical Society, 1996: http://www.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.C547-ead.xml;query=#bioghist
• Biographical memoir by Hubert Bradford Vickery, 1967: http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/clark-william-m.pdf
• Obituary in New York Times, 1964: http://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/21/william-clark-chemist-was-79.html?_r=0