Watson Davis

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Watson Davis (center) in 1942 with the winners of the first Science Talent Search Competition, Paul E. Teschan and Marina Prajmovsky

Watson Davis (born April 29, 1896 in Washington, DC , † June 27, 1967 ibid) was an American science journalist and science organizer and library scientist.

Life

Davis studied at George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in 1918 and was from 1917 physicist at the National Bureau of Standards. From 1920 to 1922 he was editor of the Washington Herald and from 1922 editor of the Science Newsletter, the journal of the Science Service, of which he was secretary from 1923 and whose director he became in 1933. The organization was founded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Research Council to get students excited about science. He dedicated himself to the international scientific exchange and the exchange and documentation of scientific work on microfilm. In 1935 he founded the forerunner and in 1937 the American Documentation Institute (ADI), the forerunner of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS & T), and was its director until 1947. From 1941 he founded science clubs for schoolchildren nationwide and was one of the founders of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and the International Science Fair.

In 1960 he received the James T. Grady Medal from the American Chemical Society for his regular progress reports in chemistry. In 1959 he received an honorary doctorate from George Washington University.

His wife, Helen Miles Davis, edited the ACS Chemistry magazine.

The History of Science Society awards the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize in honor of the couple for books that bring the history of science to a wider audience.

Fonts

  • The story of copper, The Century Company 1924

literature

  • Williams Haynes: Chemical Who's Who. Volume III. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1951, p. 181.
  • Watson Davis, a Science Editor. in: New York Times , June 28, 1967. HJ Raymond & Co., New-York, NY, 1967, p. 45.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize
personal data
SURNAME Davis, Watson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science writer and organizer
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1967
Place of death Washington, DC