Samuel C. Lind

Samuel Colville Lind (1879-1965), remembered as the father of modern radiation chemistry, was an American chemist born in McMinnville, Tennessee, who earned his bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University in 1899 and his doctorate from Leipzig University in Germany in 1905, studying reaction kinetics. He researched chemical reactions induced by ionizing radiation at the University of Michigan, the US Bureau of Mines from 1913 to 1925, and the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, before heading the chemistry department at the University of Minnesota from 1926 to 1947 and becoming the first dean of its College of Science and Engineering in 1935; Lind Hall on the Minnesota campus is named for him. He later served as acting director of chemistry at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, studying the radiation chemistry of gases, and his honors included election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1930, the presidency of the American Chemical Society in 1940, and the Priestley Medal in 1952.