316 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS In much of our work we had only milligram amounts of lipids available for chemical analysis. The search for methods with which to study these small amounts of material led me very early to utilize the technique of gas chromatography. In the early stages of this work I had the privilege of working in close association with Dr. A. T. James and our application to sebum was among the very first applications of this method to the study of naturally occurring fats. The applications of this technique to many fields of cosmetic chemistry in recent years have been so numerous that it is difficult to realize that it is little more than six years ago since these first analyses of sebum fatty acids were performed. In those days the commer- cial equipment available was of inferior design so the worker had no choice but to build his own. This meant spending perhaps a year in the construc- tion and testing of equipment this is a luxury few workers can afford today, but it is an invaluable experience and, even now, I know of no better ap-. proach to the study and utilization of the methods of gas chromatography. My work on sebum continued in England until 1957 by then it became apparent that it was not going to be possible to obtain adequate financial support there for specialized research on the skin. In the fall of that year, with the help of Dr. Stephen Rothman, I came to this country and spent two memorable years working in his laboratory in Chicago. There we continued the studies of the skin lipids in which Dr. Rothman has been actively interested for many years. His work is well known to you and the excellent equipment available in his laboratories as well as his able criticism added a great stimulus to my work. In Chicago we studied the nature of the epidermal lipids and the formation of vitamin D by the skin as well as continuing the study of the surface and sebaceous gland lipids. Later we studied the mechanisms of lipogenesis by the skin using the excellent tech.- nique of perfusion of isolated dog skin. I left Dr. Rothman for California where I spent a rather prolonged vaca- tion studying other aspects of the skin, in particular the nucleic acids. Fascinating as these studies are, they have failed to eclipse my interest in the lipids of the skin, so once again I find myself returning to my former in- terest. This does not imply that I regard the lipids as providing the an- swer to all the problems of the skin, but rather that they provide a fasci- nating field of study and one which will provide some of the answers to these problems. After all the skin has three main biochemical functions: the secretion of sweat, the formation of keratin and the synthesis of lipids so that in studying the latter we are concentrating on a significant portion of the functional activity of the skin. Many problems still remain to be solved. Th.e mechanisms of lipogenesis by the skin are only just beginning to be understood. The role played by these lipids in the diseased processes of the skin and in maintaining the normal healthy skin has still to be eluci- dated. So that I expect to be busily engaged in these studies for several

THE EIGHTH SPECIAL AWARD 317 years to come. However. with the development of new techniques this work has become much easier than it was in the past. It is gratifying to a basic research worker when his studies have a practi- cal application. Many of the products made by the cosmetic chemist are mainly composed of lipids so that it is not surprising that my work should have aroused interest here. Indeed I h•tve reason to believe that these in- vestigations have been of help not only to the cosmetic chemist but also to the drug houses in the compounding of ointment bases which are chemically compatible with human sebum. These are satisfying and aesthetically de- sirable applications. But some strange and less aesthetic applications have also been made. For instance the manufacturers of soaps and detergents have been interested in the chemical nature of sebum since this constitutes a large proportion of the soil they are trying to remove from dirty clothing. This is a very necessary, if unaesthetic, application. In conclusion let me state that it gives me great pleasure to accept this Award from the S•e•F:t'¾ and to hereby express my appreciation.