author
F. P. (Francis Preston) Venable
1856–1934
A chemist, teacher, and university leader, he helped shape scientific study at the University of North Carolina and wrote widely on chemistry and its history. His career bridged the laboratory, the classroom, and public service in American higher education.
1 Audiobook
A Brief Account of Radio-activity
by F. P. (Francis Preston) Venable
About the author
Born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1856, Francis Preston Venable became one of the leading scientific figures at the University of North Carolina. He studied at the University of Virginia and later in Germany, then joined UNC, where he taught chemistry and built a long academic career.
Venable was known both as a researcher and as an organizer of science on campus. He helped found the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, served as president of the American Chemical Society in 1905, and wrote books including A Short History of Chemistry and a later study of zirconium that remained well regarded for years.
He also served as president of the University of North Carolina from 1900 to 1914. Remembered as an educator as much as a scientist, he spent decades encouraging the growth of scientific learning in the South before his death in Chapel Hill in 1934.