In 1939 Clarence F. Hiskey, who had done research at Wisconsin on the rare metal rhenium, joined the faculty of the UT Department of Chemistry. He interested several of his colleagues in participating with him in a broadly based research program on the chemistry of rhenium. When Dr. Hiskey relocated to TVA, Dr. A. D. Melaven assumed responsibility as director of the project. An application was made to the WPA for funding, and the application was approved. The university also agreed to contribute some funds.
In early 1940 an assistant project director was hired, and 14 WPA personnel began work along with faculty in the renovated basement of Science Hall. The WPA made grants totaling $77,000 for the work from 1940 to 1943, and in 1944 the project became self-supporting from the sale of the extracted rhenium and its compounds. (The university initially sold its output of rhenium for $78 per gram.) As more uses for rhenium were found (rhenium became, for example, a component of flashbulbs), sizeable funds were raised from the sale of UT rhenium.
The process developed at UT by chemistry professors A. D. Melaven and J. A. Bacon involved adding water to the flue dust, filtering the solution, and treating it with potassium chloride to obtain a crude rhenium salt. The salt was then purified and converted into rhenium metal. From seven tons of molybdenum sulfide flue dust, approximately 140 pounds of pure rhenium metal were obtained. Funds derived from the sale of the metal were principally used for undergraduate and graduate fellowships and awards in the Chemistry Department. The endowment established with sale proceeds continues to provide A. D. Melaven Rhenium Scholarships in chemistry. The project concluded in 1966.