Herbert Morawetz (October 16, 1915 – October 29, 2017) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

chemical engineer. He was a professor of chemistry at

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...

; now New York University. His work focused on

polymer chemistry Polymer chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the structures, chemical synthesis, and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules. The principles and methods used within polymer chemistry are also applic ...

and

macromolecule A macromolecule is a "molecule of high relative molecular mass, the structure of which essentially comprises the multiple repetition of units derived, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass." Polymers are physi ...

s. He published two books: Macromolecules in Solution and Polymers and The Origins and Growth of a Science, both by Wiley.

Personal life

Herbert's wife

Cathleen Synge Morawetz Cathleen Synge Morawetz (May 5, 1923 – August 8, 2017) was a Canadian mathematician who spent much of her career in the United States. Morawetz's research was mainly in the study of the partial differential equations governing fluid flow, parti ...

was a prolific mathematician at NYU. His sister Sonja Morawetz Sinclair revealed in 2017 she was a WW2 codebreaker after seven decades of secrecy by

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

Signals Intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

. He helped organize the defection of Mikhail Barishnikov from the Soviet Union in 1974. His brother,

Oskar Morawetz Oskar Morawetz, (January 17, 1917 – June 13, 2007) was a Canadian composer. Biography Morawetz was born in Světlá nad Sázavou, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), into a Jewish family. He studied piano and theory in Prague and, follow ...

was a Canadian composer. His brother John Morawetz was a Canadian businessman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morawetz, Herbert 1915 births 2017 deaths American chemical engineers Engineers from Prague Polymer chemistry Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States American men centenarians