Herman Samuel Bloch (June 15, 1912 – June 16, 1990) was an American chemist and an inventor. Bloch invented the catalytic converter, a device that removes pollutants from automobile exhaust fumes. Bloch held more than 270 patents. He was the deputy director of research of the aerospace company AlliedSignal Inc, and chairman of the Cook County Housing Authority. He received the Chemical Pioneer Award in 1989 from the American Institute of Chemists. He received the Ernest J. Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis, the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry in 1974, and the Richard J. Kokes Memorial Award and Lectureship from Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Bloch was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.
Career
Bloch was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants Aaron and Esther Bloch. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1936 from the University of Chicago.
References
- The New York Times:Obituaries:Herman S. Bloch, 78, Chemist and Inventor, Published: June 19, 1990
- ^ National Academies Press, V.87
- Herman Bloch, inventor, county housing official
- American Institute of Chemists:Chemical Pioneer Award Winners:
- "The North American Catalysis Society (NACS)". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
- Martin Harry Greenberg, The Jewish lists: physicists and generals, actors and writers, and hundreds of other lists of accomplished Jews, Schocken Books (1979), p. 113
- Abraham Scheinberg & Harry Cohen, American Jews: Their Lives and Achievements: A Contemporary Biographical Record, vol. 2, American Jewish Literary Foundation (1958), p. 784
External links
Categories:- 1912 births
- 1990 deaths
- 20th-century American chemists
- Jewish American scientists
- Jewish chemists
- American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Scientists from Chicago
- University of Chicago alumni
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- 20th-century American inventors
- 20th-century American Jews