Willis R. Whitney

Willis R. Whitney

Willis Rodney Whitney (born August 11, 1868 in Jamestown , New York , † January 9, 1958 in Schenectady , New York) was an American chemist .

Whitney studied chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in 1890. He was then an assistant instructor in chemistry at MIT and continued his studies in 1892 at the University of Leipzig , where he received his doctorate in 1896 under Wilhelm Ostwald . He then went back to MIT, where he studied electrochemistry and the theory of corrosion. This gave him a consultant role at the General Electric research laboratory from 1900, and in 1908 he went entirely there as head of the laboratory. His first project was to improve the filaments of incandescent lamps , which the laboratory achieved with resounding success, including the development of tungsten wires for the filament. After nearly dying of appendicitis in 1907, he turned to more general administrative tasks in the laboratory. He remained head of the laboratory until 1932, making it a leading center of industrial research in the USA. He was succeeded by William David Coolidge .

With Arthur Amos Noyes he set up the Noyes-Whitney equation during his time at MIT .

In 1911 Whitney was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1916 he received the Willard Gibbs Medal , in 1921 the Perkin Medal , in 1931 the Franklin Medal and in 1934 the Edison Medal . In 1937 he received the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences , of which he had been a member since 1917. He was an honorary doctor from the University of Pittsburgh and Union College . In 1928 he received the gold medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences.

In 1911/12 he was President of the American Electrochemical Society and in 1909 of the Chemical Society . He was a member of the American Philosophical Society (since 1931) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers

Web links

• Biography at the IEEE