Paul B. Weisz

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Paul Burg Weisz (born July 2, 1919 in Pilsen , Czechoslovakia , † September 25, 2012 in State College (Pennsylvania) ) was an American chemist.

Life

Paul B. Weisz grew up in Berlin . Even as a teenager he was interested in solving technical problems and did an internship at Telefunken . In 1939 he emigrated to the USA with his family. There he graduated from Auburn University . He was then employed as a researcher at the Bartol Research Foundation at the Franklin Institute in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. During the Second World War he worked as an electrical engineer at MIT on the development of the LORAN radio navigation system . After the war ended, he went to the research and development department of the Mobil Group in Paulsboro , New Jersey , where he worked until 1969. During a sabbatical he did his doctorate in 1964 at the ETH Zurich . From 1969 he held a senior position at Mobil's Central Research Laboratory in Princeton . After retiring in 1984, he worked in biomedical research at the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University .

Weisz and his employees at Mobil made fundamental contributions to the use of molecular sieves (zeolites) as catalysts in oil refining . He was particularly interested in shape-selective catalysis on zeolites.

In 1957 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1977 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to the use of molecular sieves for catalytic cracking in petroleum processing .

Weisz has received numerous national and international awards. In 1972 he received the EV Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry and in 1974 the Chemical Pioneer Award . In 1983 he was awarded the Lavoisier Medal by the Société Chimique de France . He was a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and the Perkin Medal . In 1980 he received an honorary doctorate from the ETH Zurich. He died on September 25, 2012 in the Foxdale Village retirement home in State College, Pennsylvania.

literature

  • Thomas F. Degnan Jr .: Paul B. Weisz, 1919-2012 . Ed .: National Academy of Engineering (=  Memorial Tributes . Volume 19 ). The National Academies Press, Washington DC 2015, ISBN 978-0-309-37720-1 , pp. 312-316 ( online [accessed June 14, 2017]).
  • Susan J. Ainsworth: Paul B. Weisz (obituary) . In: Chemical & Engineering News . tape 90 , no. 48 , 2012, p. 42 ( online [accessed June 14, 2017]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members Directory: Dr. Paul B. Weisz. National Academy of Engineering, accessed June 14, 2017 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Weisz, Paul B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weisz, Paul Burg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Pilsen , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2012
Place of death State College (Pennsylvania)