William Joseph Wiswesser: Difference between revisions

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William Joseph Wiswesser (1914-1989) was an American chemist.

Life

William Joseph Wiswesser was born on December 3, 1914 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a BS degree in chemistry in 1936. He worked as a Research chemist, at the Hercules Powder Co. 1936-39; then as Assistant research director, at the Trojan Powder Co. 1939-42. Wiswesser was an instructor of chemistry in the Cooper Union's School of Engineering, 1942-45; Head of department of chemical research, Ray-O-Vac 1945-63; and Research chemist, US Army, Fort Detrich from 1963.

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. He died on Decemeber 17, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Contributions

In 1945, he published his paper describing a formula that correctly orders the subshells of atomic orbitals in the manner of the Aufbau principle, also known as the Wiswesser rule.[1]

In 1949, Wiswesser first presented what is now known as the Wiswesser line notation [2], which was particularly well suited to molecular structure representation within the computing platforms and modalities available. This work, which was further developed and expanded on by him for many years, had a lasting impact on the field of chemical informatics. It was adopted by the Institute for Scientific Information and many pharmaceutical companies

Offices

Wiswesser was editor of Chemical World Index Key News and etablished the Chemical Notation Association.

Awards

American Chemical Society. Skolnik Award, 1980.

Papers

Lehigh University Libraries, Mart Science and Engineering Library, Bethlehem, PA. * Finding aid:

Source: Subject Collections, 7th ed. Volume 2 M-Z

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Life ==
+'''William Joseph Wiswesser''' (1914-1989)  was an American chemist.
--1989
-* U.S. Army
-* Ray-o-Vac
-== Contributions ==
-Wiswesser was editor of Chemical World Index Key News. He was interested in visual-aid education, chemical coding, Wiswesser line-formula notation, dimensional analysis, atomic theory, and toxicology correlations. He etablished the Chemical Notation Association (1954or55). He worked at: Research chemist, Hercules Powder Co. 1936-39; Assistant research director, Trojan Powder Co. 1939-42; Chemical engineer, Cooper Union 1942-45; Head of department of chemical research, Ray-O-Vac 1945-63; Research chemist, US Army, Fort Detrich 1963-?.
-He designed a linear notation system which the ISI adopted to use in some of their products (1968) and still use today, and it was also adopted for internal use by many pharmaceutical companies the best tool to get at chemical structure and to represent it and print it in its day (mid 60s to 80s).
+== Life ==
+'''William Joseph Wiswesser''' was born on December 3, 1914 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a BS degree in chemistry in 1936. He worked as a Research chemist, at the Hercules Powder Co. 1936-39; then as Assistant research director, at the Trojan Powder Co. 1939-42. Wiswesser was an instructor of chemistry in the Cooper Union's School of Engineering, 1942-45; Head of department of chemical research, Ray-O-Vac 1945-63; and Research chemist, US Army, Fort Detrich from 1963.
-A brief note about Wiswesser Line Notation System appears in Wikipedia at: <nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiswesser_line_notation</nowiki>
+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.  He died on Decemeber 17, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania.
-== Awards ==
+== Contributions ==
+In 1945, he published his paper describing a formula that correctly orders the subshells of atomic orbitals in the manner of the Aufbau principle, also known as the Wiswesser rule.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufbau_principle]
-* Skolnik Award (ACS) 1980 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; WLN was adopted by the largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies worldwide to manage their chemical structure files, and by many secondary indexes, atlases of data, and catalogs of chemical compounds.
+In 1949, Wiswesser first presented what is now known as the Wiswesser line notation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiswesser_line_notation], which was particularly well suited to molecular structure representation within the computing platforms and modalities available. This work, which was further developed and expanded on by him for many years, had a lasting impact on the field of chemical informatics. It was adopted by the [[Institute for Scientific Information]] and many pharmaceutical companies
 == Offices ==
+Wiswesser was editor of ''Chemical World Index Key News'' and etablished the Chemical Notation Association.
+== Awards ==
+*American Chemical Society. Skolnik Award, 1980.
 == Further reading ==
 *"William Wiswesser" ''Wikipedia'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wiswesser]
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 == Papers ==
-'''LOCATION #1''' Lehigh University Libraries, Mart Science and Engineering Library, Bethlehem, PA 18015
+Lehigh University Libraries, Mart Science and Engineering Library, Bethlehem, PA. * Finding aid:
-* Papers dates:
-* Size:
-* Includes:
-** The Wiswesser Line Notation (Chemistry)
-** Manuscripts
-** Papers of Dr. Wiswesser on his system for encoding chemical compounds
-* Finding aid:
 * Source: Subject Collections, 7th ed. Volume 2 M-Z