John Michael Prausnitz (born January 7, 1928) is an emeritus professor of chemical engineering at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Prausnitz is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

for contributions to the thermodynamics of phase equilibria and its application to industrial process design. In 2003, he received the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

for his work in molecular thermodynamics. He developed many of the

activity coefficient In thermodynamics, an activity coefficient is a factor used to account for deviation of a mixture of chemical substances from ideal behaviour. In an ideal mixture, the microscopic interactions between each pair of chemical species are the same ( ...

models used for the design of major chemical plants.

Education

Prausnitz was born in Berlin, Germany, on January 7, 1928. His father and his mother's stepfather were both Jewish doctors. In 1933, when the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

rescinded the licenses of Jewish doctors, they were able to continue to work because they had been Frontkämpfer, "front fighters," during World War I. In 1937, at age 9, Prausnitz emigrated with his parents and sister to the United States, where he had an uncle in

Lynbrook, New York Lynbrook is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 20,438 at the time of the 2020 census. History The area currently known as Lynbrook has had o ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. His father was able to practice medicine because his German medical license was recognized by the State of New York. Prausnitz lived briefly in Lynbrook, then in Manhattan, and

Forest Hills, Queens Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast and Flushing ...

. He attended Public School 101 in New York. In 1950, Prausnitz earned his B.Ch.E., a five-year degree, from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. In 1951, he received his M.S. in chemical engineering from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

. He then joined

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

as a student of Richard H. Wilhelm. He was able to spend two summers working at the

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

. Prausnitz received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from

in 1955 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Liquid-phase turbulent mixing properties."

Career

Prausnitz joined the College of Chemistry at the

in 1955, attracted by the work of Joel Hildebrand on mixtures and by the opportunity to help shape what was then a young department. Although he officially retired from teaching in the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2004, Prausnitz remains a Faculty Senior Scientist at the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

and a Professor of the Graduate School at Berkeley. Through his work on thermodynamics and phase behavior, Prausnitz has developed the field of molecular thermodynamics, relating macroscopic properties to those of single- and multi-atom molecules. He initiated work on a number of important models for phase equilibria and the analysis of mixtures of solids, fluids, and gases, including the NRTL,

UNIQUAC In statistical thermodynamics, UNIQUAC (a portmanteau of universal quasichemical) is an activity coefficient model used in description of phase equilibria. The model is a so-called lattice model and has been derived from a first order approxi ...

, and

UNIFAC In statistical thermodynamics, the UNIFAC method ( UNIQUAC Functional-group Activity Coefficients)Aage Fredenslund, Russell L. Jones and John M. Prausnitz, "Group-Contribution Estimation of Activity Coefficients in Nonideal Liquid Mixtures", ''A ...

models. He is recognized for his engineering-oriented approach to molecular thermodynamics and its application to industrial process design. During his career at Berkeley, Prausnitz published hundreds of scientific papers, monographs and books detailing his theoretical and experimental work. In 2011, the '' Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data'' published an issue as a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

in his honor. At that time Prausnitz was credited with having published more than 760 articles, in 134 journals, with 421 different co-authors, from over twenty countries. Prausnitz was the founding

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of the '' Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering'', working with it from 2008 to 2018. His books include ''Computer Calculations of Vapor−Liquid Equilibria'' (1967), the graduate textbook ''Molecular Thermodynamics of Fluid-Phase Equilibria'' (1969; 1986; 1999), and later editions of ''Regular and Related Solutions'' (1970) and ''The Properties of Gases and Liquids'' (1977; 1987; 2001). Prausnitz was also a supporter of the Leonardo Project, an initiative to connect sciences with society, art, and philosophy, inspired by

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the thirteen-part 1973 BBC television ...

and ''

The Ascent of Man ''The Ascent of Man'' is a 13-part British documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first broadcast in 1973. It was written and presented by Polish-British mathematician and historian of science Jacob Bronowsk ...

''. The project developed and shared multidisciplinary case studies, primarily for use in undergraduate classes.

Personal life

John Prausnitz has a son,

Mark Prausnitz Mark Robert Prausnitz is an American chemical engineer, currently Regents’ Professor, Regents’ Entrepreneur and J. Erskine Love, Jr. Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also serves as Adjunct ...

, who is a professor at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

Awards

Prausnitz was elected a member of the

in 1973 and the

in 1979 for contributions to the thermodynamics of phase equilibria and its application to industrial process design. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1988. Prausnitz has been given many awards, from the Colburn Award of the

American Institute of Chemical Engineers The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as professionals independent of chemists and mechanical engineers. Curr ...

(AIChE) in 1962 to the

for his work in engineering-oriented molecular thermodynamics in 2003. In 2012, he received the Lifetime Achievement in Chemical Engineering Pedagogical Scholarship, given by the

American Society for Engineering Education 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, ...

. As of 2016, the

renamed the Institute Lecturer Award in his honor as the John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prausnitz, John Michael Living people 1928 births American chemical engineers UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty National Medal of Science laureates Cornell University alumni University of Rochester alumni Princeton University alumni Annual Reviews (publisher) editors Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering