Helmut Wilhelm Schulz

Helmut W. Schulz , nicknamed "Hap" Schulz, (* 10. July 1912 in Berlin , † 28. January 2006 in White Plains , New York was) one of Germany originating, American physicists, chemists and environmental scientists.

Life

Helmut Wilhelm Schulz immigrated to New York with his family in 1924 . After attending Brooklyn Technical High School and a Pulitzer scholarship, he studied at New York's Columbia University .

His first job led him to Union Carbide , for which he was used in 1940 in the construction of a factory for the production of methanol in Niagara Falls . An explosion occurred while doing laboratory work and he became blind. During his stay at Columbia University Hospital, he dealt with the scientific problem of uranium enrichment . To do this, he developed a process that resulted in a patent in 1942.

After his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Columbia University, he returned to Union Carbide as director of research . In 1948 he established an endowed professorship at the Union Carbide at Columbia, which was filled with the later Nobel Prize winner Arthur L. Schawlow . In the late 1960s, Schulz developed a new type of liquid propellant for rockets. In 1969 Schulz retired and went back to Columbia as a researcher. Armed with funds from the National Science Foundation , he researched the conversion of waste into energy. He eventually developed a “clean” process to generate electricity from solid waste, sewage sludge and toxic material (PCB), as well as chemical weapons.

Helmut W. Schulz had registered 64 patents in the course of his work, which dealt with nuclear physics, rocket technology as well as waste disposal and regenerative material processes. In 2004 he and Masanobu Shinozuka received the highest science award from Columbia University, the Egleston Award for Distinguished Engineering Achievement.

literature

• Stuart Lavietes: Helmut Schulz, 93, Scientist in Physics, Rockets and Refuse, Dies. in: The New York Times , HJ Raymond & Co., New York, NY, February 19, 2006