Residence U.S. Nationality U.S. | Name Wilmot Hess | |
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Born October 16, 1926
Oberlin, OH ( 1926-10-16 ) Institutions Lawrence Livermore Labs
NASA
NOAA
NCAR
Department of Energy Alma mater PhD. UC Berkeley
MA Oberlin College
BS Columbia University Known for Van Allen radiation belt
Apollo 11 science and technology Died April 16, 2004, Berkeley, California, United States Books The Radiation Belt and Magnetosphere Education University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University | ||
Wilmot N. Hess (October 16, 1926 – April 16, 2004) was an American physicist. He was involved with many ambitious scientific projects of the 20th century including the Plowshares project, the NASA Apollo moon missions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricane research and oil spill cleanup research, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) weather modification research, and the US Department of Energy Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project. Dr. Hess retired Associate Director of the US Department of Energy, first elected in 1976. Hess lived in California, and died on April 16, 2004 at the age of 77, of leukemia.
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Early life and education
Hess was born on October 16, 1926 in Oberlin, Ohio to Walter and Rachel (Metcalf) Hess. The family moved to Clinton, NY where he grew up during the Great Depression. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for the first six grades, with only three in his class but plenty of opportunity to 'skip ahead' due to the commingled age groups. Hess received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 1946 at the age of 19. In his privately published "Wilmot's World" biography, he says "I took the test to get into the Navy V-12 program.... We had military drills and wore Navy uniforms, but it was mostly just going to college. The first entry in our Navy log every day started out 'USS Hartley Hall securely moored at Broadway and 116th Street....' The Commodore in charge of all Naval Officer Procurement had his office in our building. We apprentice seamen stood watch near his door. At 4 pm we had to go in and say (with a straight face): "Sir, the time is reported as 1600. The galley fires are out and the prisoners are ashore." If you smiled during the presentation, you might be thrown in the brig (jail)." He was 87th in his family line to go to Oberlin College, where he received his M.A. in Physics in 1949. Hess then attended the University of California at Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1954.
Bill married Winifred Esther (Westher) Lowdermilk in June 1950, during his first year of graduate school at UC Berkeley. They had three children, Walter (deceased), Alison and Carl.