Theodore Kuwana (1931–2022) was a chemist and academic researcher known as the founding father of the field of spectroelectrochemistry.

[1][2] Kuwana wrote, "I was the youngest of six children; my parents were immigrant tenant potato farmers...

[8] Kuwana is recognized as the founding father of spectroelectrochemistry:[8][9][10] The origin of spectroelectrochemistry at an OTE [optically transparent electrode] appears to date from a conversation held at the University of Kansas in the late 1950's between young assistant professor Ralph Adams and his first graduate student Ted Kuwana.

As recalled by Kuwana, Adams, while observing the production of an intense yellow color in the solution near a platinum anode during the oxidation of o-tolidine commented that "...it would be nice to have a 'see through' electrode to spectrally identify the colored species being formed..." Later, Kuwana obtained samples of a conducting glass (antimony doped tin oxide-coated glass), and the first spectroelectrochemistry at an OTE was performed on o-tolidine.Now equipped with a "see through" electrode, Kuwana and his students used these conducting glass OTEs for the first spectroelectrochemical experiments of electrogenerated solution species.

They monitored formation of the yellow species at 437 nm using a constant anodic current (i. e., chronopotentiometry – a technique that was more commonly used at the time than it is now) and reported the results in their classic 1964 paper.Describing Kuwana's "profound impact on analytical chemistry education", Wenzel, et al., wrote that Kuwana set up a series of workshops with industrial leaders to evaluate the undergraduate analytical sciences curriculum and design improvements.

The main recommendation from the workshop participants was that "the undergraduate analytical sciences curriculum needed to engage students in problem-based experiences in the classroom and laboratory portion of courses.

Kuwana partnered with the American Chemical Society, Division of Analytical Chemistry, to set up a partnership for educational outreach.

[14]According to Richard L. McCreery, "Ted Kuwana was not only a scientific leader in electrochemistry and related fields, but he was also an excellent citizen and unselfish contributor to the careers of many other scientists, myself included.