Mayo Dyer Hersey (August 30, 1886 – September 5, 1978) was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, physicist at 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 ...

and other government agencies, and Professor of

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. He received the 1957

ASME Medal The ASME Medal, created in 1920, is the highest award bestowed by the ASME (founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Board of Governors for "eminently distinguished engineering achievement". The award has been presented every year ...

, and the first Mayo D. Hersey award in 1965.

Biography

Youth, education and early career

Hersey was born in Pawtuxet Neck in

Providence County, Rhode Island Providence County is the List of counties in Rhode Island, most populous county in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the county's population was 660,741, or 60.2% of the state's population. Provide ...

in 1886,Martha Mitchell.
Hersey, Mayo D.
" in: ''Encyclopedia Brunoniana,'' Brown University Library, 1993. son of George Milbank Hersey and Alice Stafford (Budlong) Hersey. He obtained his Bsc from

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

in 1907, and in 1910 both his BSc in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

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 th ...

, and his MSc in physics and mathematics from

Olivet College Olivet College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Olivet, Michigan. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It was founded in 1844 by missionaries from Oberlin College, and it followed Oberlin in becom ...

.Mayo D. Hersey
at

NNDB The Notable Names Database (NNDB) is an online database of biographical details of over 40,000 people. Soylent Communications, a sole proprietorship that also hosted the now-defunct Rotten.com, describes NNDB as an "intelligence aggregator" of ...

, 2014. Accessed 2017-09-19. After his graduation in 1910 Hersey started his career as physicist at the National Bureau of Standards, now

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 s ...

. He also started teaching at the

from 1910 to 1922. In World War I he did research on aeronautical instruments for the National Bureau of Standards.

Further career and acknowledgement

After leaving the National Bureau of Standards in 1920, Hersey was appointed at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh as chief of the physical laboratory from 1922 to 1926. From 1936 to 1951 Hersey was back at the National Bureau of Standards. In World War II he served as a consultant to the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

at Columbia. From 1947 to 1957 he also worked as scholar for the Naval Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis, and then retired from government service. From 1934 to 1936 Hersey had lectured at

, and from 1943 to 1945 he had been a scholar at

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 ...

. From 1957 until his death in 1978 he had been visiting professor in engineering at Brown University. He received 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 Americ ...

International Award in 1951. In 1965 the ASME initiated the annual Mayo D. Hersey award for "distinguished and continued contributions over a substantial period of time to the advancement of the science and engineering of

tribology Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on many academic fi ...

," and Hersey was named its first recipient. In 1967 the ASME also awarded him the

. In 1974, the

Institution of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 120,000 member ...

awarded him the Tribology Gold Medal.

Selected publications

* Mayo Dyer Hersey. ''On the Laws of Lubrication of Journal Bearings,'' 1915. * Mayo Dyer Hersey. ''Theory of lubrication,'' J. Wiley & Sons, inc., 1938. * Mayo Dyer Hersey and Richard F. Hopkins. ''Viscosity of lubricants under pressure.'' American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1954. * Mayo Dyer Hersey ''Theory and research in lubrication : foundations for future developments,'' John Wiley & Sons, 1966. ;Articles, a selection * Hersey, Mayo D. "The laws of lubrication of horizontal journal bearings." ''Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences'' 4.19 (1914): 542-552. * Hersey, Mayo D. "Future problems of theoretical rheology." ''Journal of Rheology'' (1929-1932) 3.2 (1932): 196-204. * Hersey, Mayo D. "Note on heat effects in capillary flow." ''Physics'' 7.11 (1936): 403-407.

References

External links

Hersey, Mayo D. - Brown University
Encyclopedia Brunoniana
Mayo D. Hersey Award
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers {{DEFAULTSORT:Hersey, Mayo Dyer 1886 births 1978 deaths People from Providence County, Rhode Island Colorado College alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Olivet College alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Brown University faculty 20th-century American engineers ASME Medal recipients Fellows of the American Physical Society Tribologists