Thomas Kilgore Sherwood

Thomas Kilgore Sherwood (born July 25, 1903 in Columbus , Ohio, † January 14, 1976 ) was a renowned American chemical engineer and founding member of the National Academy of Engineering .

life and work

Sherwood was born in Columbus, Ohio and spent much of his youth in Montreal . In 1923 he received his bachelor's degree (BS) from McGill University , then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a doctorate (Ph.D.). His dissertation entitled "The Mechanism of the Drying of Solids" was completed in 1929 (according to other sources in 1931), a year after he had become a research associate at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute . In 1930 he returned to MIT as a research associate, where he worked as an associate professor (1933), as a professor (1941) and as dean until his retirementremained in engineering (1946–1952). In 1969 he retired from MIT to become professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley .

Sherwood's primary research area was mass transfer , and in 1937 he published the first major textbook in the field: Absorption and Extraction (re-published as Mass Transfer in 1974 ). The Sherwood number was named in his honor:

${\displaystyle Sh={\beta L \over D}}$

With

• ${\displaystyle \beta }$= Mass transfer coefficient
• ${\displaystyle L}$= characteristic length
• ${\displaystyle D}$= Diffusion coefficient

His activities during World War II were that in 1940 he organized the chemical engineers on the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC); he also advised the Baruch Committee on the development of synthetic rubber (1942); served as NDRC department head for various chemical engineering issues (1942), where he oversaw the development of new hydraulic fluids , including antifouling paints for ship hulls, large fog curtain generators, etc .; and he was a member of the Whitman Committee for jet propulsion (jet propulsion) (1944). In the fall of 1944 he followed American troops to Europe to collect scientific intelligence information. His industrial advisory activities included efforts in seawater desalination , filtering sulfur dioxide from flue gases, dry freezing blood, and making penicillin and vinyl acetate .

Sherwood received the US Medal for Merit (1948), won major awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society , and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1948), the National Academy of Sciences (1958), and the National Academy of Engineering .

membership

In 1948 Sherwood was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1958 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Works

• Thomas K. Sherwood: Mass Transfer. McGraw-Hill, New York 1975, ISBN 0-07-056692-5 .

swell

1. ^ Founding members of the National Academy of Engineering , ed. National Academy of Engineering , accessed January 24, 2013.
2. ↑ Thermopedia: SHERWOOD, THOMAS KILGORE (1903-1976) , accessed February 11, 2013.
3. ↑ A Biographical Memoir by Hoyt C. Hottel
4. ↑ National Academy of Sciences: Thomas Kilgore Sherwood (PDF; 740 kB)
5. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter S. (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 24, 2018 . 

Web links

• National Academy of Engineering memorial tribute , accessed January 23, 2013
• National Academy of Sciences. Thomas Kilgore Sherwood, 1903-1976, A Biographical Memoir by Hoyt C. Hottel , pdf, accessed January 30, 2013
• Thermopedia: SHERWOOD, THOMAS KILGORE (1903-1976) , accessed January 30, 2013