Thomas Graham

Scottish chemist (1805–1869)

Graham was the son of a prosperous Glaswegian manufacturer. He entered Glasgow University at the age of 14 and attended the classes of the chemist Thomas Thomson. Graham's father was determined that he should enter the ministry and on Graham's persistence with his scientific studies his father withdrew his financial support. To continue in chemistry Graham made his living through teaching and writing. In 1829 he became a lecturer at the Mechanics Institution and in 1830 he was elected to the chair of chemistry at Glasgow University. In 1837 he was appointed professor in the recently founded University College, London. He was the first president of the Chemical Society of London, and of the Cavendish Society, which he founded. In 1854 he was made master of the mint.

In 1829 Graham published a paper on the diffusion of gases. Observations on this subject had been made by Joseph Priestley and Johann Döbereiner, but it was Graham who formulated the law of diffusion. He compared the rates at which various gases diffused through porous pots, and also the rate of effusion through a small aperture, and concluded that the rate of diffusion (or effusion) of a gas at constant pressure and temperature is inversely proportional to the square root of its density.

In 1860 Graham examined liquids. He noticed that a colored solution of sugar placed at the bottom of a glass of water gradually extends its color upwards. He called this spontaneous process diffusion. He also noticed that substances such as glue, gelatin, albumen, and starch diffuse very slowly. He classified substances into two types: colloids (from Greek kolla, glue), which diffuse only slowly, and crystalloids, which diffuse quickly. He also found that substances of the two types differ markedly in their ability to pass through a membrane, such as parchment, and he developed the method of dialysis to separate them. Graham is regarded as the father of modern colloid science, and many terms that he invented, such as sol, gel, peptization, and syneresis, are still in use. Other work done by Graham includes research into phosphorous acids, the water of crystallization in hydrated salts, and the absorption of hydrogen by palladium. Graham was an excellent and successful teacher.

chief executive officer; president (organization); media executive; writer

Personal Information

Born Pamela Thomas circa 1963, in Detroit, MI; husband: Lawrence Otis Graham; children: Gordon.
Education: Harvard University, B.A., J.D., M.B.A.

Career

Harvard Law Review editor; McKinsey & Co, consultant, partner, 1989-99; CNBC.com, CEO, president, 1999-; NBC, vice president, 1999-01, president, 2001-; author, 1998-.

Life's Work

One of the highest-ranking female executives at NBC, Pamela Thomas-Graham is a multi-talented woman who not only had a successful run as a business consultant, and then was hired to run the Internet portion of CNBC, but she also, in her spare time, has authored two successful mystery novels, with plans for more to come. Thomas-Graham, was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. After attending Lutheran High School West, she became the first person in her family and the first student from her high school to attend Harvard University. Once there she not only successfully navigated the old boy school environment of Harvard-Radcliffe, but was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated magna cum laude, with a degree in economics. Thomas-Graham was awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay prize as the student who showed the greatest promise in her graduating class, according to SimonSays.com. From there she went on to attain both an M.B.A and a J.D., also from Harvard University.

Not one who believes in a half-busy life, Thomas-Graham, while working on her three Harvard degrees, held summer internships in three companies, according to Black Enterprise: the corporate finance division at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan, the Boston law firm Sullivan & Worchester, and the management consulting firm Bain & Co. She was also an editor for the Harvard Law Review. Overachieving was something that she learned from her family. "My family emphasized that it was important to achieve," she told the www.ka-ching.oxygen.com web site, "My mother always worked and I was proud of her for that. So from a very early age, my image was of a woman who had her own very real place in the world," she continued. Thomas-Graham had no choice but to follow in her mother's footsteps.

In 1989, after her successful stint at Harvard, Thomas-Graham was offered a job at the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Co. She found that she really enjoyed the structure and challenge of the consulting industry, and that it gave her the same environment that had made her pursue law in the first place. "We give people business advice in the same way lawyers give legal advice," she told Black Enterprise. Thomas-Graham found it to be a very analytical business, a work environment that was ideal for her. Thomas-Graham worked with up to five clients at a time, over half of whom were Fortune 500 companies. She would spend the first few months gathering information about the company she was trying to help, and then would carefully scrutinize the data in order to figure out what exact issues the company needed to address. She was so good at this that she became, in 1995, the youngest partner McKinsey & Co. had ever had and one of only 35 women and four African Americans out of 600 partners in the New York office. Consulting Magazine, the only magazine published specifically for management consultants, also named her one of the "Top Ten Most Influential Consultants" in 1999, according to Business Wire.

All of her hard work and talent did not go unnoticed. In 1999, Thomas-Graham was offered an opportunity she could not refuse: she was tapped for the position of president and CEO of www.CNBC.com, the web site accompanying the financial-news cable network, and executive vice president of NBC. It had always been a dream of hers to "head up a company and the decision was an easy one," she told www.ka-ching.oxygen.com, "I am part of a wonderful institution, but operating in an entrepreneurial environment where I can implement my own working style," she added. The web site, www.CNBC.com, serves not only the United States, but also 140 countries across Europe and Asia. According to Multichannel News, CNBC.com had 1.5 million registered users at the end of 2000. With Thomas-Graham heading up the management team at CNBC, it is certain that her own style has touched millions of people already. Besides these obligations, Thomas-Graham also served on the boards of the New York City Opera, the American Red Cross of Greater New York, the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, and the Harvard Alumni Association, according to Ebony.

In the midst of all this change and chaos, Thomas-Graham also became a published mystery author. Simon & Schuster published her first book, A Darker Shade of Crimson in 1998. Sub-titled An Ivy League Mystery, it was the first in a series of books that were set in the world of the Ivy League school, a backdrop very familiar to Thomas-Graham. The main character, Nikki Chase, is a young, black Harvard economics professor. In A Darker Shade of Crimson, one of Nikki's colleagues is murdered and Nikki feels compelled to track the killer down. Reviews of the book were generally good. Faulted for periodically "limp" dialogue, Booklist ended their review of the book saying, "Still, a savvy sleuth and a richly detailed setting carry the day." While The Wall Street Journal said the book "fails to satisfy either as thriller or romance," Kirkus Reviews called the book "An impressive first outing." Whatever critics said, it was popular with readers, and soon after its release, the second book in the series was published. Blue Blood came out in 1999 and it wasn't long before the book rose to number five on the best-selling books list in Essence magazine. This time Nikki went to Yale to investigate the death of her friend's wife. Fans await the release of the third book in this series.

An exciting woman to watch, Thomas-Graham is married to attorney and author Lawrence Otis Graham. The pair have one son, Gordon. Despite her already busy schedule, Thomas-Graham has also served as a strategist for the political campaign of her husband who hopes to obtain a seat in Congress. She also became president of CNBC in 2001. No one knows where the talented and extremely ambitious Pamela Thomas-Graham will do, but whatever it is, it's sure to be a successful venture and one worth watching.

Awards

Phi Beta Kappa; Captain Jonathan Fay scholarship; "Top Ten Most Influential Consultants," 1999, Consulting Magazine; Bestseller Book List, 1999, Blue Blood.

Further Reading

• Black Enterprise, October, 1996, p. 60; August, 2000.
• Booklist, April 15, 1999, p. 1485.
• Business Wire, July 14, 1999.
• Ebony, March, 2000; March, 2001.
• Essence, September, 1999; May, 2000.
• Jet, January 10, 2000, p. 37.
• Kirkus Reviews, 1998; 1999.
• Library Journal, June 15, 1999, p. 132.
• Multichannel News, September 25, 2000; February 19, 2001.
• New York Times, March 26, 1996, p. C4.
• Television Digest, September 6, 1999.
• Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1998.
• On-line
• www.ka-ching.oxygen.com.
• www.aamystery.com.
• www.amazon.com.
• www.simonsays.com.

— Catherine Victoria Donaldson

Thomas Graham may refer to:

• Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch (1748–1843), British politician and soldier
• Thomas Graham (chemist) (1805–1869), Scottish chemist
• Sir Thomas Graham (lawyer) (1860–1940), South African lawyer and politician
• Tom Graham (1866–1945), Wales national rugby player
• Tommy Graham (Australian rules footballer) (1886–?), Australian rules footballer
• Thomas Edward Graham, Baron Graham of Edmonton, (born 1925), known as "Ted Graham", British Labour Co-operative politician
• Tommy Graham (singer), Canadian singer and record producer
• Tommy Graham (born 1943), Scottish Member of Parliament for Renfrew West and Inverclyde
• Tom Graham (American football) (born 1950), American football player
• Tom Graham (volleyball) (born 1956), Canadian volleyball player

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