The Allan P. Colburn notebooks document the education of Allan P. Colburn (1904-1955), a prominent researcher in the field of chemistry and former University of Delaware provost and coordinator of scientific research. The bulk of the material, covering the period of 1924 to 1929, consists of lecture notes and related materials for various chemistry and engineering classes Colburn took at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Richard F. Heck (1931-2015), namesake of the Heck Reaction, was an American chemist awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with palladium to catalyze organic chemical reactions. The Richard F. Heck papers, 1931-2012, comprise personal documents, photographs, professional honors and citations, publications, and material related to his 2010 Nobel Prize, including his Nobel diploma and a doctoral hat from Uppsala University (2011).