Eastman Kodak has been recognized as being a National Historic Chemical Landmark. That designation comes from the American Chemical Society, and it recognizes George Eastman and Kodak for their role in bringing everyday photography to the world.
The celebration of that designation was made Monday at the Kodak Center on Ridge Road.
The President of the American Chemical Society, Angela Wilson, said that the landmark designation “honors George Eastman, Eastman Kodak and the many generations of Kodak chemists, scientists and engineers who made photography an everyday part of our lives before the advent of smartphones and digital cameras.”
Terry Taber is the Chief Technology Officer for Kodak. He said that even though this landmark award focuses on Kodak’s film legacy, advanced materials and chemicals are part of their current lineup in terms of both research and the products they hope to produce.
“The industries that we’ve targeted are clearly of current interest and will be of interest for many decades to come, like the batteries, the transparent antenna reagents for pharmaceuticals.”
Over recent decades, Kodak spent millions of dollars to help clean up pollution caused by chemicals from its film manufacturing.
But Taber said that the company has been changing the way it produces chemicals, to make the process more sustainable.
“We use different processes, we do a lot more recover, reuse, and we choose different materials,” said Taber. “It starts all the way back in the R&D phase, that whatever you’re going to make you think about how that’s going to go into a product, how it’s going to be manufactured, how it’s going to be used by the customer and what’s going to happen to it.”
The landmark designation from the American Chemical Society will be the 7th one in New York state and the first to be located outside the New York City area.
