Harry George Drickamer
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Harry George Drickamer | |
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Born | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | November 19, 1918
Harry George Drickamer (November 19, 1918 – May 6, 2002), born Harold George Weidenthal, was a pioneer experimentalist in high-pressure studies of
Drickamer was born in
In 1942 Drickamer began work at the Pan American Refinery in Texas City, Texas. After his fellow students played a prank by forging his name on a sign-up sheet for the Ph.D. qualifying exam in chemical engineering, he decided to take the 16-hour exam. After he started work in Texas, he received word that he had passed. He then combined work with study of physics and quantum mechanics, and in February 1946 returned to the University of Michigan for one term to receive his Ph.D.
Drickamer joined the
Honors and awards
- 1947 Coburn Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- 1956 Ipatieff Prize, American Chemical Society
- 1962 Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 1965 Member of the National Academy of Sciences
- 1967 Oliver E. Buckley Solid-State Physics Award, American Physical Society
- 1967 Alpha Chi Sigma Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- 1968 Victor Bendix Award, American Society for Engineering Education
- 1970 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1972 William H. Walker Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- 1974 Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, American Chemical Society
- 1977 P. W. Bridgman Award, International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology
- 1978 Michelson-Morley Award, Case Western Reserve University
- 1979 Member of the National Academy of Engineering
- 1983 Member of the American Philosophical Society
- 1983 Chemical Pioneer Award, American Institute of Chemists
- 1984 John Scott Award, City of Philadelphia
- 1985 Outstanding Materials Chemistry, U.S. Department of Energy
- 1986 Federal Republic of Germany
- 1987 Robert A. Welch Prize in Chemistry
- 1987 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society.
- 1989 He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President George H. W. Bush on October 18, 1989.[2]
- 1989 Elliott Cresson Medal, Franklin Institute
Legacy
Drickamer died of stroke on May 6, 2002, in Urbana. In honor of his outstanding achievements and hard work, one graduate student every year at Illinois from either Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, or Physics will be awarded the Harry G. Drickamer Research Fellowship via the Drickamer Fund.
Harry is the father of esteemed biochemist Kurt Drickamer, currently a professor at Imperial College London, discoverer of C-type Lectins. His other son, Lee C. Drickamer is a well-known animal behaviorist and textbook author who received the 2010 Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award from the Animal Behavior Society. Now retired as Regents' Professor Emeritus, he spent his academic career at Williams College, Southern Illinois University, and Northern Arizona University.