Dr. William Albert Zisman (1905–1986)Dr. William A. Zisman: A Retrospective, Labstracts, July 6, 2009, p3 was an American chemist and geophysicist.

Life and career

He was born in Albany, NY and spent his youth in

Providence, RI Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

up to the age of 14 when his family moved to

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. He earned his BS and MS degrees in physics from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He began his career working as a research assistant to

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner P. W. Bridgman at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He earned his PhD while at Harvard in 1932 and continued on as a post-doc studying high pressure problems relating to the Earth's core. During this point in his career he began to follow in the footsteps of Langmuir, Rideal, and Harkins. Research funds were limited during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and so Zisman returned to

and held various administrative jobs for government agencies that were born during the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

era. Zisman returned to science in 1938 when he quit his job in Washington for a year and personally financed a year of study in the laboratory of the late Dr. Roy 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. "Surface Chemistry was his abiding interest and everyone in the division was trained to be aware of the various interactions that can be involved in diverse natural systems." said Patrick J. Hannan, who worked under Zisman in the 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 Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially modified or synthesised. Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be syn ...

and additives. Perhaps no one of his era made greater contributions to the vast collection of excellent data on

contact angle The contact angle is the angle, conventionally measured through the liquid, where a liquid–vapor interface meets a solid surface. It quantifies the wettability of a solid surface by a liquid via the Young equation. A given system of solid, liq ...

wettability Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface, resulting from intermolecular interactions when the two are brought together. This happens in presence of a gaseous phase or another liquid phase not miscible with ...

surface tension Surface tension is the tendency of liquid surfaces at rest to shrink into the minimum surface area possible. Surface tension is what allows objects with a higher density than water such as razor blades and insects (e.g. water striders) to f ...

, and

adhesion Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another ( cohesion refers to the tendency of similar or identical particles/surfaces to cling to one another). The forces that cause adhesion and cohesion can be ...

. In 1954 he was awarded the

Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award {{infobox military award , name = , image = DON Distinguished Civilian Service.png , image_size = 100px , caption = Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal , presenter = Departm ...

. In 1961, Zisman received the International Award from the

Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers The Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) is an American non-profit technical society for the tribology and lubrication engineering sectors worldwide. Its offices are in Park Ridge, Illinois. Established in 1944 as the Ameri ...

. In 1963, he received the Kendall Award from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

for his vast contributions to

surface science Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fiel ...

. In 1964 he was awarded the

Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest Awards and decorations of the United States government, civilian award given by the United States Department of Defense. This award and accompanying Distinguished Civilia ...

from the Secretary of Defense. In 1965

Clarkson College of Technology Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an enro ...

awarded Dr. Zisman with an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. In 1968 he was awarded the Office of Naval Research's

Captain Robert Dexter Conrad Award The Captain Robert Dexter Conrad Award is an award presented annually to the individual making an outstanding contribution in naval research and development. Background The award is named in honor of Captain Robert Dexter Conrad, who was the pri ...

. In 1969, he was awarded the

Mayo D. Hersey Mayo Dyer Hersey (August 30, 1886 – September 5, 1978) was an American engineer, physicist at the National Bureau of Standards and other government agencies, and Professor of Engineering at Brown University. He received the 1957 ASME Medal, and th ...

Award from the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

. He was the author of over 100 publications and held 39 patents, 10 of which are held by the US Navy. He also authored Zisman's Plot method which is incorporated in ramé-hart DROPimage software. Among his greatest inventions is the NRL Contact Angle Goniometer which has been manufactured by ramé-hart instrument co., Succasunna, NJ, for over 50 years.

References

External links

Concise biography of Dr. William Zisman
ramé-hart instrument co. Newsletter September 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zisman, William 1986 deaths American physical chemists American geophysicists 1905 births Harvard University alumni MIT Department of Physics alumni Tribologists