Frederick Rossini

Frederick Dominic Rossini ( born July 18, 1899 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, † October 12, 1990 in Juno Beach, Florida) was an American chemist who dealt with chemical thermodynamics.

Rossini studied at Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1925 and master 's degree in physical chemistry in 1926. After reading the textbook on thermodynamics of Gilbert Newton Lewis and Merle Randall he wanted to work in this field and wrote to Lewis, the invited him to the University of California, Berkeley ( as a substitute teacher, Teaching Fellow ), where he received his doctorate in 1928 with Merle Randall. Topic of the thesis was the heat capacity of strong electrolytes in aqueous solution. From 1928 he worked at the National Bureau of Standards ( NBS) with Edward W. Washburn. He led there by calorimetric measurements to numerous chemical processes. In particular, he also studied in collaboration with the American Petroleum Research Institute and with Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer in Berkeley with thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbons. He remained until 1950 when NBS and then became a professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1960 Professor at the University of Notre Dame and from 1971 until his final retirement in 1978 at Rice University.

In 1965 he received the John Price Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute and the Laetare Medal ( the highest honor the University of Notre Dame), 1966, the William H. Nichols Medal, 1971, the Priestley Medal, 1972, Redwood Medal of the British Institute of Petroleum, 1978, the Carl Engler medal and 1976 National Medal of Science. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorary doctorate awarded to him in addition to his alma mater nor the Duquesne University, the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University Chicago, St. Francis College, the University of Portland and the University of Lund in Sweden.

Writings

• Chemical Thermodynamics, Wiley 1950