William Joseph Wiswesser (December 3, 1914 – December 17, 1989) was an American chemist best known as the creator of the Wiswesser line notation (WLN), which was an innovative way to represent chemical structures in a linear string of characters suitable for computer manipulation. He is also known for the Wiswesser rule, a mathematical formula which predicts the order of atomic orbitals in many-electron atoms.

Education and career

Wiswesser was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

, to Louis and Hattie (Flatt) Wiswesser in 1914. He attended Reading High School, and graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1936. Following graduation, he worked at Hercules, the Trojan Powder Company, and the Picatinny Arsenal. Wiswesser then served as an instructor of chemistry in the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

's School of Engineering during the 1940s. It was during this time that he published his 1945 paper describing a formula that correctly orders the subshells of atomic orbitals in the manner of the Aufbau principle, known as the Wiswesser rule. Following his time at Cooper Union, Wiswesser worked for Willson Products (where he was Director of Industrial Hygiene), followed by civilian employment by the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick and finally at the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. In 1949, Wiswesser first presented what is now known as the Wiswesser line notation, which was particularly well suited to molecular structure representation within the computing platforms and modalities available. The same text was published a
In Memoriam: William Joseph Wiswesser (1914-1989)
''Chemical Information Bulletin'' vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 1990. This work, which was further developed and expanded on by him for many years, had a lasting impact on the field of

chemical informatics Cheminformatics (also known as chemoinformatics) refers to use of physical chemistry theory with computer and information science techniques—so called "''in silico''" techniques—in application to a range of descriptive and prescriptive problem ...

. Wiswesser was also interested in the

history of chemistry The history of chemistry represents a time span from ancient history to the present. By 1000 BC, civilizations used technologies that would eventually form the basis of the various branches of chemistry. Examples include the discovery of fire, e ...

and near the end of his life he made a special study of

Josef Loschmidt Johann Josef Loschmidt (15 March 1821 – 8 July 1895), who referred to himself mostly as Josef Loschmidt (omitting his first name), was a notable Austrian scientist who performed ground-breaking work in chemistry, physics (thermodynamics, optics, ...

's work, alone at first and then together with preeminent chemist

Alfred Bader Alfred Robert Bader, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (April 28, 1924 – December 23, 2018) was a Canadians, Canadian chemist, businessman, philanthropist, and collector of fine art. He was considered by the ''Chemical & Engine ...

Honors and awards

In 1970 he was awarded the

Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service The Department of the Army Distinguished Civilian Service Award formerly the Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service is the highest award that may be bestowed by or on behalf of the Secretary of the Army to Army civilian ...

, the highest honour which can be given by the United States Army to a civilian, in recognition of his "Chemical Line-Formula Notation", the WLN. That same year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Lehigh University. In 1975 he was awarded the

Austin M. Patterson Award Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

for chemical information science. Wiswesser received the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information's

Herman Skolnik Award The Herman Skolnik Award is awarded annually by the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society, "to recognize outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science". the awa ...

in 1980, with a citation "For pioneering mathematical, physical, and chemical methods of punched-card and computer-stored representation of molecular structures, leading to the creation of the Wiswesser Line Notation (WLN) for concise storage and retrieval of chemical structures ...".

Death

At the end of his life he was working for the United States Department of Agriculture on weed science until his final illness, and he died on 17 December 1989, aged 75, in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, leaving a widow, Katherine, and a son, daughter and four grandchildren. His scientific papers were deposited at Lehigh University after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiswesser, William 1914 births 1989 deaths Cheminformatics 20th-century American chemists Lehigh University alumni People from Reading, Pennsylvania Cooper Union faculty