Charles Elwood Mendenhall
Physicist and professor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Elwood Mendenhall (August 1, 1872 – August 18, 1935) was an American physicist and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
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Charles Elwood Mendenhall | |
|---|---|
In the University of Wisconsin–Madison yearbook for 1903 | |
| Born | August 1, 1872 Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | August 18, 1935 (aged 63) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Resting place | Forest Hill Cemetery |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, including Thomas C. Mendenhall |
| Relatives | Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (father) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Henry Rowland | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Wisconsin–Madison (1901–1935) |
Doctoral students | Leland John Haworth |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
Branch |  U.S. Army Signal Corps |
Service years | 1917–1919 |
Rank |  Major |
Conflicts | World War I |
Early life
Charles Elwood Mendenhall was born on August 1, 1872, in Columbus, Ohio.[1][2] He was the son of Susan Allen (née Marple) and Thomas Corwin Mendenhall.[1][3] At the age of six to nine, he lived in Japan while his father taught at the University of Tokyo.[3] There he became friends with John Morse, son of Edward S. Morse.[3]
He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1894 from Rose Polytechnic in Terre Haute, Indiana.[1][3] Starting in 1895, he studied under Henry Rowland at Johns Hopkins University and received a PhD in 1898.[1][2][4] Under Rowland, he worked with Charles Greeley Abbot, head of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and fellow student Frederick A. Saunders, a fellow PhD candidate, on a black-body radiation problem for his thesis.[3]
Career
After graduation from Rose Polytechnic in 1894, Mendenhall worked with George Putnam to make a transcontinental survey of the acceleration of gravity for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and taught physics for a year at the University of Pennsylvania.[1][3] From 1898 to 1901, he taught at Williams College.[1][3] In 1901, he succeeded fellow Hopkins graduate Robert W. Wood as assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2][3] He became a full professor in 1905.[1][3][2]
He worked on a 1909 U.S. Mint assay and performed research at the Nela Laboratory in Cleveland in 1913.[3] He is known for inventing the V-wedge method in 1911.[1] In 1917, Mendenhall was made a Major of the Science and Research Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.[2][3] He worked closely with his friend Robert Andrews Millikan at the Signal Corps.[3] After World War I in 1919, he transferred to the U.S. Department of State, succeeding Henry A. Bumstead.[3] He served for six months as the scientific attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London.[2][3] He was chairman of the physical science division of the National Research Council in 1919 and 1920.[5]
Later career
He became the department chair at the University of Wisconsin in 1926.[1][3] In his time at the University of Wisconsin, he had 35 doctoral students, including Nobel Prize winner John Hasbrouck Van Vleck and Leland John Haworth.[1][6] He remained professor until his death in 1935.[7]
He was the vice president of The Optical Society in 1921 and the president of the American Physical Society from 1923 to 1925.[1][2][3] He was the vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1929.[3]
Personal life
,_Charles_Elwood_Mendenhall_(1872–1935),_and_Dorothy_Reed_Mendenhall_(1874–1964)_at_Forest_Hill_Cemetery_(Madison,_Wisconsin)_1.jpg)
Mendenhall married Dorothy M. Reed of Talcottville, New York on February 14, 1906. They met as students at Johns Hopkins.[2][3] Together, they had four children, including Margaret, who died shortly after birth, Thomas Corwin Mendenhall and John Talcott Mendenhall.[2][8]
He played the violin and was active in musical circles for much of his life.[3]
Death
Mendenhall died at a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin on August 18, 1935.[1] He was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery.
Awards and legacy
- Mendenhall was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1918.[9]
- In 1935, he was appointed fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[10] and a member of the American Philosophical Society.[11]
- The Charles Elwood Mendenhall Fellowship is an award given to graduate students working in experimental physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[7]