Sheldon M. Wiederhorn (May 4, 1933 – June 3, 2021) was an American materials scientist affiliated with the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

Biography

Wiederhorn was born on May 4, 1933, in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, the son of immigrants. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1956 and was a member of the men’s swim team. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. Wiederhorn's first job after university was at E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., where he did research on the mechanical behavior of ceramic materials. He then joined the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

to lead research on the mechanical behavior of glasses and ceramic materials and stayed at the institute for the rest of his working and emeritus career. He was known for his research applying fracture mechanics to ceramic materials and experiments he designed to characterize subcritical crack growth in glasses and how water influences crack propagation. For his research, Wiederhorn received a Samuel Wesley Stratton Award in 1977 by the

. He was also elected a member of The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) in 1970 and was made a Distinguished Life Member in 1998. He was editor of the ''

Journal of the American Ceramic Society The ''Journal of the American Ceramic Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published on behalf of the American Ceramic Society by Wiley-Blackwell. It was established in 1918 and is edited by John C. Mauro. Publishing formats incl ...

'' for 15 years and served on the board of directors of ACerS from 2005 to 2008. Wiederhorn was elected to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

in 1991 for "outstanding advancements in the development and application of test methods and basic understanding of the mechanical properties of ceramics." Wiederhorn died on June 3, 2021, at age 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiederhorn, Sheldon M. 1933 births 2021 deaths Scientists from New York City Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni DuPont people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellows of the American Ceramic Society American materials scientists National Institute of Standards and Technology people