Bruce Buzzell Benson (1922–1990) was a professor of physics at the

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

. Benson was born in Choteau, Montana. He was a graduate of

and then got his master's and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University where he later served as an instructor from 1944 to 1946. In 1947, Benson returned to his alma mater to join its faculty. From 1957 to 1967 he was an associate professor of physics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and from 1977 to 1990 served as an associate editor of the journal '' Marine Chemistry''. During his time as professor of physics at Amherst, he worked closely with Daniel Krause, studying thermodynamics of the solubilities of gases. Benson died of respiratory failure on March 7, 1990 at Cooley Dickinson Hospital,

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

. Benson's wife,

Lucy Wilson Benson Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luc ...

, was involved with local liberal politics of the time, and was a president of the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

. Bruce Benson joined the League of Women Voters, too, and was reportedly its first male member. Lucy Benson served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. Seven years after Benson's death, Harry V. Keefe, a former roommate of Benson, donated the Keefe Science Library to Amherst in his honor.

Awards

* Guggenheim Fellow (1958)

References

External links

Bruce B. Benson (AC 1943) Papers
at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections 1922 births 1990 deaths American physicists Amherst College alumni Yale University alumni Amherst College faculty People from Choteau, Montana Deaths from respiratory failure Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution {{US-physicist-stub