Paul Hugh Emmett

Paul Hugh Emmett (September 22, 1900 – April 22, 1985) was an American chemist best known for his pioneering work in the field of catalysis and for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II.

He spearheaded the research to separate isotopes of uranium and to develop a corrosive uranium gas.

Emmett also made significant contributions to BET Theory which explains the relationship between surface area and gas adsorption.

He served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University for 23 years throughout his scientific career.

Paul Hugh Emmett was born on September 22, 1900, in Portland, Oregon to John Hugh Emmett (1864-1943) and Lavina Hutchins (1870-1941).

Emmett's father was a railroad engineer.

For a year in his early childhood, Emmett's family lived in a rail car while his mother worked as a cook for the rail company.

Emmett attended Washington High School where he excelled in language and mathematics classes.

Among his acquaintances in high school was Linus Pauling, future two-time Nobel Prize winner.

Emmett had a fear of public speaking, so he enrolled in the debate team in both high school and college to gain proficiency.

His first high school science classes, physics and chemistry, were taken during his senior year of high school.

Emmett's senior year chemistry teacher, William Green, is said to have inspired him to pursue a career in chemistry.

Later in life, Emmett expressed that perhaps high schools are "simply not flexible enough for the people in the genius class."

In 1918, Emmett began his studies in chemical engineering at Oregon State University.

After completing his bachelor's degree in 1922, Emmett pursued his PhD in physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology under Arthur F. Benton.

At the time, the California Institute of Technology was paying PhD students nearly double what other programs were offering, making the university an enticing choice for Emmett.

In 1925, Emmett accepted a teaching position at Oregon State University, but only remained for a year.

In 1926, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the US Department of Agriculture's Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory.

For over a decade, Emmett led experiments attempting to incorporate catalysis into the synthesis of ammonia.

He also worked on implementing catalysis in projects ranging form the decomposition of ammonia to water-gas conversion.

Emmett also served as a lecturer at George Washington University while in Washington, D.C.

Emmett was married to Leila Jones on July 14, 1930, until her death in 1968.

He had a short second marriage which ended in divorce.

Emmett joined Johns Hopkins University in 1937 to establish the Department of Chemical and Gas Engineering alongside Ralph Witt, Charles Bonilla, and Lloyd Logan.

He was the chair of the department from 1937 to 1943.

In 1943, Emmett left Johns Hopkins University to become a division chief on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University under the directive of Harold Urey.

For 16 months, Emmett's lab focused on separating uranium isotopes and converting uranium into a corrosive gas.

Emmett remained on the Manhattan Project as a consultant for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 22 years.

In 1944, he relocated to the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in Pittsburgh, PA to conduct petroleum research.

In 1955, Emmett moved back to Johns Hopkins University, albeit in a different department, as the William R. Grace Professor of Chemistry.

He was active both nationally and internationally with various chemistry committees and conferences.

He was elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1955.

During this period, Emmett published his famous work on the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) Theory, which later earned him a Nobel Prize in Chemistry nomination in 1967.

Emmett finished his career at Johns Hopkins University, retiring in 1971 with the professor emeritus distinction.

For the remainder of his life, Emmett was a visiting research professor at Portland State University, undertaking new research areas, giving seminar talks, and teaching advanced courses in catalysis.

Emmett was a close friend and classmate of Linus Pauling with whom he attended high school, college, and graduate school.

Pauling became brother-in-law to Emmett after he married Pauling's older sister, Pauline, in 1976.

He died on April 22, 1985, at the age of 84.

She survived him, eventually passing away in 2003 at the age of 101.

Emmett had Parkinson's disease and a brain tumor during the later stages of his life.