Frederick D. Rossini

Frederick Dominic Rossini (born July 18, 1899 in Monongahela , Pennsylvania , † October 12, 1990 in Juno Beach , Florida ) was an American chemist who dealt with chemical thermodynamics .

Rossini graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1925 and a master's degree in physical chemistry in 1926. After reading the textbook on thermodynamics by Gilbert Newton Lewis and Merle Randall , he wanted to work in the field and wrote to Lewis, who invited him to the University of California, Berkeley (as an assistant professor , teaching fellow ), where he received his doctorate in 1928 under Merle Randall. The subject of the dissertation was the heat capacity of strong electrolytes in aqueous solution. From 1928 he was at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) with Edward W. Washburn . There he carried out calorimetric measurements on numerous chemical processes. In particular, he dealt with the thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbons in collaboration with the American Petroleum Research Institute and with Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer in Berkeley. He stayed with the NBS until 1950, when he became a professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology , a professor at the University of Notre Dame in 1960, and Rice University from 1971 until his final retirement in 1978 .

In 1965 he received the John Price Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute and the Laetare Medal (the highest honor of the University of Notre Dame), in 1966 the William H. Nichols Medal , in 1971 the Priestley Medal , in 1972 the Redwood Medal of the British Institute of Petroleum , The Carl Engler Medal in 1978 and the National Medal of Science in 1976 . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1964). In addition to his alma mater, he received an honorary doctorate from Duquesne University , the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University Chicago , St. Francis College , the University of Portland and Lund University in Sweden .

Fonts

• Chemical Thermodynamics, Wiley 1950

Web links

• Ernest Eliel, biography at NAS