Farrington Daniels

Farrington Daniels (1889-1972) was an American physical chemist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, remembered as one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy. He spent most of his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he chaired the chemistry department and directed the university's Solar Energy Laboratory, and he argued publicly that fossil fuels would not last forever and that solar power could serve developing nations. Daniels also wrote widely used textbooks on physical chemistry and chemical kinetics, worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1947. He received the Priestley Medal in 1957 and the Willard Gibbs Award in 1955.