Wilder Dwight Bancroft

Wilder Dwight Bancroft ( born October 1, 1867 in Middletown, Rhode Iceland, † February 7, 1953 in Ithaca (New York)) was an American physical chemist.

Bancroft studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a BA in 1888. A Ph.D. degree he received in 1892 at the University of Leipzig. Among his teachers were Wilhelm Ostwald and Jacobus Henricus van ' t Hoff.

Bancroft taught from 1888 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1894 as an assistant ( Assistant Instructor ) Chemistry at Harvard University, in the years 1894 and 1895, he was fully active as a teacher (Full Instructor ). From 1895 he taught an assistant professor at Cornell University, from 1903 he was a professor (full professor ).

He led in the United States adopted different approaches to thermodynamics and colloid chemistry in physical chemistry. He is best known for the eponymous Bancroftsche rule that says that a mostly hydrophilic emulsifier stabilizes an oil-in -water emulsion, whereas a predominantly hydrophobic emulsifier stabilizes a water-in- oil emulsion.

From 1896 to 1933 he published the first American magazine in his field of physical chemistry, the Journal of Physical Chemistry. The appearance of the journal had to be stopped for financial reasons due to the economic depression in America.

Honors

A Doctor of Science (Doctor of Science, SCD) has been awarded honorary him in 1919 from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and in 1923 by the University of Cambridge.

In his honor, the craters on the moon Bancroft was named after him.

Works (selection)

• WD Bancroft (1913 ), Theory of emulsification, Journal of Physical Chemistry 17, 501 - 519