Thomas Kilgore Sherwood
Thomas Kilgore Sherwood ( born July 25, 1903 in Columbus, Ohio, † 14 January 1976 ) was a renowned American chemical engineer and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.
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 ) to apply for the doctoral degree (Ph.D. ). His dissertation titled it "The Mechanism of the Drying of Solids" was completed in 1929 ( according to other sources 1931), a year after he became a research associate in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 1930 he returned as a research assistant returned to MIT, where he remained until remained his retirement as an associate professor (1933 ), Professor (1941 ) and as dean in Engineering ( 1946-1952 ). , 1969 he retired from MIT to be a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sherwood's primary area of research was mass transfer ( mass transfer ), and in 1937 he published the first major textbook in this subject: Absorption and Extraction (1974 re-released Mass transfer ( mass transfer ) ). The Sherwood number was named in his honor:
With
- = Mass transfer coefficient
- = Characteristic length
- = Diffusion coefficient
His activities during the Second World War were that he organized in 1940 the chemical engineers at the National Defense Research Committee ( NDRC ); He also advised the Baruch Committee on the development of synthetic rubber (1942 ); NDRC served as department head for various chemical engineering issues (1942 ), where he oversaw the development of new hydraulic fluids, and antifouling paints for ship hulls, large mist - generators, etc.; and he was a member of the Whitman Committee for jet propulsion ( jet propulsion ) ( 1944). In autumn 1944 he followed American troops to Europe to collect scientific intelligence information. His industrial consulting activities included efforts in seawater desalination, filtering out sulfur dioxide from flue gases, dry freezing of blood, and the production of penicillin and vinyl acetate.
Sherwood received the U.S. 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.