A chemistry professor said educators must remember chemistry has a language of its own.

Greg Girolami, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, focused on the educator’s perspective of chemistry and the history of chemistry during his lecture Wednesday.

The lecture was titled “Illuminating the History of Chemistry Through Books and People.”

The language of chemistry can be broken into three areas, which are the ABCs, vocabulary and grammar, Girolami said. The ABCs represent the chemical symbols, while the vocabulary represents the nomenclature.

Nomenclature is “the systemic naming of chemical concepts,” Girolami said.

The grammar represents chemical concepts, which Girolami said educators enjoy teaching to students.

“As educators we are fascinated by chemical concepts and love to teach them to students,” Girolami said.

Though, Girolami said the key to teaching chemistry is making sure students understand the chemical symbols.

“Chemical symbols can be difficult for students to learn because the modern chemical symbols are random and arbitrary,” Girolami said.

He used the chemical table of Geoffrey Etiene, a chemist in the 1700s, to emphasize how chemical naming can seem random to a causal observer.

Etiene used complex symbols to represent certain chemicals in his table that were not familiar to chemistry professors and educators in the audience.

“Our modern symbols are random and arbitrary just like the symbols back in the 1700s,” Girolami said.

He emphasized to educators that students will not immediately understand the chemical symbols and it is the job of educators to help them to understand.

“There is nothing logical about the symbols, we just have to memorize it,” Girolami said.

Craig Wheeler, a professor of chemistry at Eastern, said Girolami’s lecture was for faculty and students alike.

Girolami also spent much of his lecture discussing the history of chemistry. He talked about the chemist Edward Frankland who invented the concept of valence, the concept of chemical bonds, and improved upon the water quality in Great Britain during the 1800s.

“The single chemist of the entire history of the chemical enterprise that is least well-known is Edward Frankland,” Girolami said.

Girolami is a graduate of University of Texas.

Elizabeth Edwards can be reached at eaedwards.eiu.edu