MRI

Frank C. (Rocky) Whitmore (1887-1947) was a leading international authority on the field of organic chemistry, especially hydrocarbon chemistry and molecular rearrangements. In 1932, he developed the concept of carbocations, molecules with positively charged carbon atoms, with his later research providing the first explanation of carbocation rearrangements. In 1929 he was appointed Dean of the School of Chemistry and Physics at Penn State.

Through his leadership of the Materials Research Institute and outreach among international glass researchers, Pantano forged a legacy across disciplines.

Moses H.W. Chan came to Penn State in 1979, and the Evan Pugh Professor of Physics immediately began a body of research work that spanned diverse topics.
 

The Pennsylvania State University had a number of critical pioneering contributors to the development of X-ray diffraction as a major structural characterization tool for materials. This starts with the recruiting of Wheeler P. Davey from GE in 1926. He built his first diffractometer at Penn State with very little funds, using an X-ray tube and Geiger counters as the sensors.

Joseph H. Simons, Penn State professor of chemical engineering, discovered over 800 different fluorine-based materials. It was his development of the electrochemical fluorination (ECF), or Simons Process, that changed industrialization of fluorinated materials and chemistries. Prior to the development of this process, fluorination with fluorine, a highly reactive and toxic element, was a dangerous and wasteful process.