Julius Scherzer (born 17 February 1928) is a retired chemist. He has published two scientific-technical books, and two editions of an autobiography, along with dozens of scientific papers.
Early life
Julius Scherzer was born on 17 February 1928, in
Czernowitz
Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the up ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, (the city that is now
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the upp ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
). The son of an attorney, he grew up in a secular, German-speaking Jewish family. He attended grade school and first year middle school under the Romanians.
Life under foreign occupation
In 1940, after the takeover of the city by the Soviets (a result of the
Hitler-Stalin pact), Scherzer attended one year of middle school under the Soviets. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Germans and their fascists Romanian allies in 1941, Czernowitz came again under Romanian rule. Scherzer and his family (parents and sister) were forced into the city's ghetto, which they survived. After liberation by the Red Army in 1944, Julius finished middle- and high school under the Soviets.
Education
After the war, in 1946, Scherzer and his family moved to Romania, and he enrolled in the Chemistry Department of the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
. He was graduated from the University with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1951. In 1963, Scherzer got his PhD degree in inorganic-physical chemistry from the University of Bucharest.
In 1974, while working at the Research Division of the
W.R. Grace Co., Scherzer got a master's degree in Environmental Science from
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
.
Career
After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Bucharest, Scherzer began teaching and working on research in the university's chemistry department, specifically in the areas of inorganic and analytical chemistry. He did his first research work under professor
Gheorghe Spacu Gheorghe Spacu (December 5, 1883 – July 23, 1955) was a Romanian inorganic chemist.
Born in Iași, he attended the city's National College from 1894 to 1901. He subsequently enrolled in the physics and chemistry section of the sciences faculty a ...
, and went on to become the head of the laboratory. At the same time, Scherzer translated into Romanian Russian chemistry books and scientific articles for Editura Tehnica, a publisher of foreign scientific literature.
In 1963, Scherzer he moved to Vienna, Austria, where he did several months of post-doctoral research at the
Technical University
An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...
, that resulted in a scientific publication. Later that year, he emigrated to the US, where he did three years of post-doctoral research at the Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Afterwards, he joined the Research Division of the
W. R. Grace Co. in Columbia, Maryland, where he did research work on zeolites and petroleum cracking catalysts.
In 1978, Scherzer moved to California to become the Research Director at the Filtrol Co., a catalyst manufacturer. In 1983, Scherzer joined the
Union Oil Company of California
Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...
(Unocal) and started research at the Unocal Center for Science and Technology, in Brea, California. He worked there as Principal Scientist in the area of petroleum refining catalysts, and in 1990 received the Unocal Grand Prize for Creativity. He retired from Unocal in 1995.
Works
Scherzer is the author of the books “Octane-Enhancing Zeolitic FCC Catalysts: Scientific and Technical Aspects” (1990) and “Hydrocracking: Science and Technology” (coauthored with A. J. Gruia), 1996.
During his career, Scherzer had more than 40 scientific articles published and was named as the holder or co-holder of over 50 patents.
After retiring from Unocal, Scherzer wrote an autobiographical/historical novel. The first edition was published in 2005 under the title “While the Gods were silent: Growing up under Fascists and Communists.”
A second, revised edition was published in 2014 under the title “In the Vortex.”
References
External links
ACS Publications- 5 of the papers that Scherzer wrote or co-wrote
Goodreads- author profile
Justia Patents- details of some of Scherzer's patents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scherzer, Julius
1928 births
Living people
Scientists from Chernivtsi
University of Bucharest alumni
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Romanian chemists
Brown University staff
Romanian expatriates in Austria
Romanian emigrants to the United States