Joel Henry Hildebrand

Joel Henry Hildebrand ( born November 16, 1881 in Camden (New Jersey), † April 30, 1983 in Kensington ( California)) was an American chemist.

Hildebrand had already become interested in the College of Chemistry and studied from 1899 chemistry and physics at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in 1903 and his doctorate in 1906 in chemistry (The determination of anion in the electrolyte way). He studied at Humboldt University in Berlin, among others, in Jacobus Henricus van ' t Hoff and Walter Nernst and then taught at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1913 he was Gilbert Newton Lewis, invited to the University of California, Berkeley, where he was instructor, associate professor in 1918 and professor in 1919. 1949 to 1951 he was Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. In 1952 he was officially retired, but continued to teach at the University until shortly before his death. A hall in Berkeley is named after him.

He was regarded as a leading expert on the physical chemistry of solutions, especially non- electrolytic solutions. Hildebrand introduced the concept of regular solutions. He was regarded as a great teacher of chemistry at Berkeley.

Mid-1920s, he discovered the advantage of helium - oxygen mixtures in diving to avoid decompression sickness.

In 1953 he received the Willard Gibbs Medal, 1962, the Priestley Medal in 1939 and the Nichols Medal. The Joel Henry Hildebrand Award of the American Chemical Society is awarded in his honor for achievements in the chemistry of fluids. The first winner was Hildebrand himself in 1981. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1929.

He was 1937-1940 President of the Sierra Club. With his daughter Louise he wrote the book Camp Catering.

Writings

  • Solubility, New York, Chemical Catalogue Company 1924
  • An Introduction to Molecular Kinetic Theory - selected topics in modern chemistry, New York, Reinhold 1963
  • Viscosity and diffusivity - a predictive treatment, Wiley 1977
  • Principles of Chemistry, Macmillan 1918, 7th Edition with RE Powell 1964
  • Science in the Making, Columbia University Press 1957
  • Is intelligence important? , Macmillan 1963
  • With Louise Hildebrand: camp catering or how to rustle grub for hikers, campers, mountaineers, backpackers, canoers, hunters and fishermen, Brattleboro / Vermont, Stephen Daye Press 1938
  • A history of solution theory, Annual Review Physical Chemistry, Volume 32, 1981, p 1-23
Walther Nernst
440121
de