George O. Curme
George Oliver Curme Junior (born December 24, 1888 in Mount Vernon , Iowa , † July 28, 1976 in Oak Bluffs , Massachusetts ) was an American chemist . He is considered a pioneer in industrial petrochemistry.
Curme received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1913 and then studied with Fritz Haber , Walther Nernst and Emil Fischer in Berlin until the outbreak of World War I. He went as an industrial chemist to the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in Chicago , which had received a research contract from the Perst-O-Light Company on the industrial production of acetylene for lamps. Curme found a method of generating it with an electric arc, which also produced ethylene , for which he was looking for possible uses. He eventually found this in the synthesis of ethylene glycol , which was used as an antifreeze. When Perst-O-Light was taken over by Union Carbide in 1917 , it turned to the production of ethylene from ethene, which until then was considered a by-product of the cracking of petroleum. Union Carbide founded the subsidiary Carbide and Carbon Chemical Company in 1920 and acquired an oil refinery in Clendenin , West Virginia , where the production of ethylene and glycolethylene began.
In 1944, Curme became vice president of research at Union Carbide.
In 1935 he received the Perkin Medal , in 1944 the Willard Gibbs Medal and in 1936 the Elliott Cresson Medal . In 1954 he received the University of Chicago Alumni Medal. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences .
Web links
- biography
- August B. Kinzel: George Oliver Curme, Jr., 1888-1976. Biography at the National Academy of Sciences (PDF)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Curme, George O. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Curme, George Oliver (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 24, 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mount Vernon , Iowa |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 28, 1976 |
| Place of death | Oak Bluffs , Massachusetts |