Solomon C. Hollister

Solomon Cady Hollister (born August 4, 1891 in Crystal Falls , Michigan , † July 6, 1982 in Ithaca , New York ) was an American civil engineer and professor at Purdue University and Cornell University .

Solomon Hollister studied at the State College of Washington and the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a bachelor's degree in 1916. Before that, he had worked as an engineer in Washington and Oregon from 1910 . His teachers included Frederick E. Turneaure (1866–1955) and E. R. Maurer (1869–1948), who published the first US textbook on reinforced and reinforced concrete. Hollister himself was taught by Fritz von Emperger according to the manual for reinforced concrete construction and pursued ideas from Wilhelm Ritter in his thesis . He received a diploma from the University of Wisconsin only in 1932.

He taught at the University of Illinois (from 1916 as an instructor for mechanics) and Purdue University before becoming a professor at Cornell University in 1934, where he was dean of the College of Engineering in 1937 until his retirement in 1959 . There he was instrumental in collecting donations for many of the university's buildings, one of which was named after him. He campaigned publicly for more intensive engineering training in order, as was assumed in the Cold War , to catch up with the Soviet Union . He was often a government advisor in various positions, for example in an organizing committee of former US President Herbert Hoover from 1953 to 1955 , and in 1953, as a member of the Defense Committee of Business and Scientific Leaders , pushed for nuclear armament and the development of better air defense.

Hollister dealt with steel construction as well as with solid construction and reinforced concrete and built the first concrete ships for the US Navy as early as the First World War . In World War II, which was resumed on a larger scale, with Hollister advisor was of the program. At the beginning of his career he was known for his contributions to welded joints in steel construction and advised on bridges and pressure vessels. In concrete construction he was involved in the development of the relevant US standards and in the development of ready-mixed concrete.

In 1928 he received the Wason Medal from the American Concrete Institute for designing a bridge in Chester, Pennsylvania . He also designed the large penstocks to the turbines at Hoover Dam (for Babcock and Wilcox). He was chairman of an advisory committee for the Panama Canal . At times he was President of the American Concrete Institute. Because of his great influence on American engineering education, he received the Lamme Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in 1952 . He was a four-time honorary doctorate and honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Concrete Institute.

In 1919 he married Ada Garber and had three children with her.

In 1980 a colloquium was held in his honor at Princeton University .

Web links

• Solomon C. Hollister in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Walter Wagoner, obituary in the New York Times, July 8, 1982

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chi Epsilon, biography of Hollister
2. ↑ The life of his family in Biblerecords
3. ^ David Billington: Solomon Cady Hollister Colloquium, Technology and Culture, Volume 22, 1981, p. 757, JSTOR