Britton Chance (1913-2010) was a biochemist and biophysicist as well as a pioneer in the field of biomedical optics. Chance received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and his Ph.D. in Biology and Physiology from Cambridge University in 1942. Over the course of his nearly eight decade career, Chance was dedicated to the application and transfer of basic scientific research and technology to clinical medicine. The Britton Chance Papers contain correspondence, research notes, experimental data, publication materials, and photographs stemming from Chance's life as a biochemist, biophysicist, and yachtsman. The collection is broken up into fifteen series that document every aspect of his scientific work.

This collection contains correspondence, reports, notes, and notebooks. Clarke's participation in various organizations is documented, including the American Philosophical Society, American Chemical Society, American Otological Society, and the American Society of Biological Chemists. His chemistry research is detailed in thirteen notebooks, 1903-1971 (the 1903 volume is on photographic chemistry and processes). There is also one volume on the clarinet, for Clarke was an expert clarinetist. The personal and family correspondence is principally with Mrs. Dorothy Clarke Middleton and Mrs. Agnes Helfreich Clarke.

A biochemist at Columbia University, Erwin Chargaff discovered the base-pairing regularities or "complementarity relationships" of nucleic acids that provided one of the key steps in developing a structural model for DNA. During his long career, Chargaff is credited with conclusively falsifying the tetranucleotide hypothesis; demonstrating the existence of a large number of DNA species; and creating the first descriptions of hypochromicity, hyperchromicity, and the denaturation of a DNA. In addition, Chargaff conducted important research on blood coagulation, lipids and lipoproteins, the metabolism of amino acids and inositol, and the biosynthesis of phosphotransferases. He retired to emeritus status in 1974 and remained active in research almost to the time of his death in June 2002. The Chargaff Papers are organized into ten series: I. Correspondence, 1931-1992; Ia. Correspondence, 1949-2002; IIa. Grants, 1930-1982; IIb. Subject Files, 1940-1984; IIc. Subject Files, 1946-2002; III. Works by Chargaff, 1929-1989; IIIa. Works by Chargaff, 1923-2002; IIIb. Reprints, 1977-1999; IV. Works by Others, 1936-1985; IVa. Works by Others, 1976-2002; V. Research Notes and Notebooks, 1929-1951 ; VI. Photographs, 1935-1977; VIa. Photographs, 1928-2002; VII. Audiovisual Materials; VIII. Awards and Certificates, 1958-2001; IX. Lecture Notes, 1942-1985; X. Personal Papers, [1880]-1985.

One of the most influential statisticians of the twentieth century, John Wilder Tukey (1915-2000) played a key role in both the development and study of statistics. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1939 from Brown University, he joined the faculty at Princeton; in 1945, he also began work at Bell Laboratories. Equally committed to both Princeton and Bell Labs, Tukey chose to work concurrently at both institutions. He was also a consultant for many companies, such as Merck and Company, Xerox Corporation, and the Educational Testing Service, and was a frequent advisor to the government for such programs as the US Census. From 1960 to 1980 he led the statistical component of NBC's election night projections. Among other projects Tukey analyzed Alfred Kinsey's research and examined data on ozone depletion. Tukey made many important contributions to the field of statistics, such as work in time series analysis, exploratory data analysis, and multiple comparisons. Through his work, Tukey developed statistical applications including the Box-and-Whisker Plot, the Stem-and-Leaf Diagram, Cooley-Tukey Fast Fourier Transforms, Tukey's Paired Comparisons and citation and permutated indices. Tukey's influence extends beyond statistics to everyday language: he was the first to use the word "software" in print and coined words such as "bit" and "linear programming." A prolific writer, John W. Tukey penned more than 500 technical papers and reports and published, among numerous other works. His collected papers amount to eight volumes of work. The Tukey Papers provides a comprehensive perspective into Tukey's professional activities from his days as a graduate student until his death in 2000. Among the material is his correspondence and his published and unpublished works. There is abundant material from Tukey's long careers at Bell Laboratories and Princeton University, including extensive lecture notes and syllabi. Also included are copious materials relating to his professional activities with such agencies as the National Research Council, the Army Records Office, Xerox PARC, Merck and Company, the President's Science Advisory Committee, and the National Academy of Sciences.