Background
Lewis was born in Laurel, Delaware on 21 August 1882 and went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study engineering.
Lewis was born in Laurel, Delaware on 21 August 1882 and went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study engineering.
He took the chemical engineering option from the Department of Chemistry, which so engaged him that he went for postgraduate study of physical chemistry in Breslau, Germany, receiving the degree of Doctor of Science in 1908.
He co-authored an early major textbook on the subject which essentially introduced the concept of unit operations. He also co-developed the Houdry process under contract to The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) into modern fluid catalytic cracking with Edwin R. Gilliland, another Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Shortly after, he published a paper on "The Theory of Fractional Distillation" which was the basis for subsequent chemical engineering calculation methods.
(He later authored 19 patents on distillation) After some industrial experience as a chemist, he returned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 1920 he became the first head of the newly formed Department of Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology a position he held for 13 years before returning to teaching and research.
In November 1942 Lewis was appointed to chair a committee to survey the Manhattan Project and review all aspects of the bomb research and development, partly because of du Pont’s doubts about the plutonium process. Their report dated December 4 supported the plutonium project
lieutenant also recommended concentrating on the gaseous diffusion process for enriching uranium and building only a small electromagnetic plant. Conant supported building a large electromagnetic plant, which Nichols says was essential to dropping the bomb in August rather than months later.
The committee also suggested suitable industrial organisations and. furnished us with a blueprint for the complete industrial organization of the project which Groves mostly followed.. and gave us more confidence concerning the feasibility of producing sufficient quantities of fissionable material.
In April–May 1944 another committee under Lewis recommended construction of the South-50 thermal diffusion plant developed by Philip Abelson of the United States Navy. He was made professor emeritus in 1948 and continued to work within the department until his death on 9 March 1975. 1936 Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry V.
National Academy of Sciences.