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Wilder Dwight Bancroft (Middletown, Rhode Island on 1 October 1867 - 7 February 1953) was an American physical chemist. He received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1888, a Ph.D. from University of Leipzig in 1892, and honorary SCDs from Lafayette College (in 1919) and Cambridge University (in 1923). He was an assistant chemistry instructor at Harvard University from 1888-1889 and 1893-1894, then a full instructor from 1894-1895. He then became an assistant professor at Cornell University in 1895, then a full professor (at Cornell) in 1903. Bancroft was trained by Wilhelm Ostwald and Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and introduced a number of thermodynamic and colloid-chemical concepts into American physicochemistry. He is known for the Bancroft rule: a predominantly hydrophilic emulsifier stabilises an oil-in-water emulsion, whereas a predominantly hydrophobic emulsifier stabilises a water-in oil emulsion. The lunar crater Bancroft is named in his honor.
Selected writings
- W. D. Bancroft (1913), Theory of emulsification, Journal of Physical Chemistry 17, 501 – 519.
External links
- Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, 1994, v. 65, 3 – 39 - by J. W. Servos
- Obituary (by A. Findlay, J. Chem. Soc., 1954, 2506 – 2514; pdf copy)
