Wilder Dwight Bancroft
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Wilder Dwight Bancroft (Middletown, Rhode Island on 1 October 1867 - 7 February 1953) was an American physical chemist.
He received a BA from Harvard University in 1888, a PhD from Leipzig University in 1892, and honorary SCDs from Lafayette College (in 1919) and Cambridge University (in 1923).
He was an assistant chemistry instructor at Harvard University from 1888-1889 and 1893-1894, then a full instructor from 1894-1895. He then became an assistant professor at Cornell University in 1895, then a full professor (at Cornell) in 1903.
Bancroft was trained by Wilhelm Ostwald and Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and introduced a number of thermodynamic and colloidchemical concepts in American physicochemistry. He is known for the so-called Bancroft rule: a predominantly hydrophilic emulsifier stabilises an oil-in-water emulsion, whereas a predominantly hydrophobic emulsifier stabilises a water-in oil emulsion.
The lunar crater Bancroft is named in his honor.
[edit] Literature
- W.D. Bancroft (1913), Theory of emulsification, Journal of Physical Chemistry 17, 501-519.
