William Zisman

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Dr. William Albert Zisman (dead 1986)[1] was trained as a physicist but became enthralled in the exciting developments in the arena of surface science -- following in the footsteps of Langmuir, Rideal, and Harkins.[2] His passion was so great that in 1938 he actually quit his job in Washington for a year and personally financed a year of study in the laboratory of the late Dr. Goranson at the Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory. The following year he successfully lobbied for a research program in surface chemistry and was hired to steer that program at the Naval Research Lab, later heading up the entire Chemistry Division.

While at NRL, Dr. Zisman developed the vibrating condenser method of measuring contact potential, a method that has been widely used since then. In fact, he did his master's thesis on this topic at MIT. He also did significant work on oils and during the war he made many important observations that led to the development of synthetic lubricants and additives. Perhaps no one of his era made greater contributions to the vast collection of excellent data on contact angle, wettability, surface tension, and adhesion. He was the author of over 100 publications and his name was on nearly two dozen patents, mostly for lubricants and protective treatments for surfaces. He also authored Zisman's Plot method which is incorporated in our DROPimage software. In 1963 he received the Kendall Award from the American Chemical Society for his vast contributions to surface science.[3][4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Obituaries - washingtonpost.com (June 13, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
  2. ^ Advances in Chemistry Series, Robert F. Gould, Editor, American Chemical Society, 1964, p v.
  3. ^ Advances in Chemistry Series, Robert F. Gould, Editor, American Chemical Society, 1964, p vi.
  4. ^ ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.

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