David Reynolds Lide, Jr.

David Reynolds Lide, Jr. (b. 1928) is an American data specialist.

Life

David Reynolds Lide, Jr was born May 25, 1928, in Gainesville, GA. He received a BS degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1949, then MA (1951) and PhD (1952) from Harvard University.

His research involved: free radicals, high temperature, microwave and infrared spectroscopy, molecular structure, critical data evaluation, and molecular lasers.

Lide worked at the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC, as a physicist, 1954-63; chief of the Molecular Spectroscopy Section, 1963-69; and director of Office of Standard Reference Data, 1969-88. He became a freelance editor in 1989.

Contributions

Member of editorial board, Applied Spectroscopy Reviews, 1968-76, and the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science, 1986-89.
Editor, Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, 1972-?.

Publications

Editor in chief, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press (Boca Raton, FL), 71st edition, 1990, 89th edition, 2008.

Offices

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
Communication Symbols, Terminology, and Units | Chairman
Phys. Chemistry Division | Pres., 1983-87

Awards

Fulbright scholar and Ramsay Memorial fellow, 1952-53.
National Science Foundation. Senior postdoctoral fellow, 1959-60 & 1967-68.
US Department of Commerce, Silver Medal, 1965, and Gold Medal, 1968.
National Bureau of Standards. Samuel Wesley Stratton Award, 1968.
American Chemical Society, Herman Skolnik Award in Information for the creation of the national standard reference database series of computer searchable numerical databases and for founding and editing the Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, 1988; Patterson-Crane Award for contributions to chemical documentation, 1991.
Presidential Rank Award Meritorious Federal Executive, 1986.