Jr. (Josiah Parsons) Josiah P. Cooke

Born in Boston on October 12, 1827, Josiah Parsons Cooke Jr. studied at Harvard and spent nearly his whole professional life there. He became Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in 1852, and his long career helped shape Harvard into an important center for scientific research and teaching.

Cooke is best remembered for his work on atomic weights, a demanding area of nineteenth-century chemistry that aimed to measure the fundamental properties of elements with precision. He also wrote Elements of Chemical Physics, noted by Harvard as the first American text in that field, and he contributed to mineralogy as well; the mineral cookeite was named in his honor.

Beyond the laboratory, Cooke had a wide range of interests. As a student he experimented with early photography, and as a teacher he influenced a generation of chemists, including Theodore William Richards, who later became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Cooke died on September 3, 1894, leaving behind a reputation as one of the important builders of American chemistry.