N. Howell Furman

Nathaniel Howell Furman (1892–1965) was an American professor of analytical chemistry who helped develop the electrochemical uranium separation process as a member of the Manhattan Project.^[1]

Background and career

Furman was born in the

Furman helped develop an ether extraction process to extract Uranium oxide, a precursor to the fissile material used in the first atom bombs as discussed in the Smyth report.^[4] He served as a special consultant to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and was an advisor to the post-War Office of Scientific Research and Development.^[5] An August 8, 1945, special to the Princeton Bulletin revealed that multiple Princeton faculty, among them Albert Einstein, John Archibald Wheeler, Henry DeWolf Smyth, Hugh Stott Taylor, and Furman, had all "disappeared to Shangri-La" to work secretly on the bomb during wartime.^[6]

Books published

In 1933 Furman co-wrote Elementary Quantitative Analysis, one of the first textbooks in the field of analytical chemistry for undergraduates.^[7]

He co-wrote Analytical Chemistry of the Manhattan Project in 1950.^[8]

Personal life

A resident of Princeton, New Jersey,^[1] Furman owned a summer cottage in Charlotte, Vermont, on Lake Champlain and enjoyed sailboat racing and golf in his spare time. He had a son and a daughter—who became a chemist—with Hannah S. Hendrickson.^[4]

Honors

• 1953 - Palladium Medalist, Electrochemical Society^[9]
• 1951 - President of the American Chemical Society^[10]
• 1949 - Class of 1913 Distinguished Service Award^[10]
• 1948 - First recipient of the Fisher Award for analytical chemistry^[11]
• 1916-1917 - Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship^[12][13]

References