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. Afterwards, he was assistant instructor in chemistry at MIT and continued his studies in 1892 at the University of Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in 1896 with Wilhelm Ostwald. Then he was back at MIT, where he studied with electrochemistry and theory of corrosion. This gave him 1900 an advisory role in the research laboratory of General Electric, and in 1908 he went quite there as head of the laboratory. His first project was to improve the filaments of incandescent lamps, giving the laboratory with resounding success was achieved through the development of tungsten wires for the filament. After he nearly died in 1907 of appendicitis, he devoted himself more general administrative tasks of the laboratory. He remained until 1932 head of the laboratory, which he made into a leading industrial research center in the United States. His successor was William David Coolidge.

Arthur Amos Noyes With he put in his time at MIT on the Noyes -Whitney equation. In 1916 he received the Willard Gibbs Medal, 1921, the Perkin Medal, 1931, the Franklin Medal in 1934 and the Edison Medal. In 1937 he received the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, whose member he was. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, and Union College. In 1928 he received the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences.

In 1911/12 he was president of the American Electrochemical Society and 1909 the Chemical Society. He was a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers