Samuel Glasstone

Samuel Glasstone was a British-born American chemist and science writer whose reference books taught a generation of engineers the basics of nuclear power. Born in London in 1897, he earned his doctorates at London University, held several academic posts in England and moved to the United States in 1939, becoming a citizen in 1944. In physical chemistry he is credited with discovering the C-H to O interaction in 1937 and worked with Henry Eyring and Keith Laidler on the theory of absolute reaction rates. For the United States Atomic Energy Commission he produced a long series of nuclear texts, among them the Sourcebook on Atomic Energy of 1950, The Elements of Nuclear Reactor Theory, Nuclear Reactor Theory, Principles of Nuclear Reactor Engineering and Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions, which Glenn Seaborg praised as models of clear and correct science writing. He died in 1986. He is included here as the author who put reactor engineering into textbook form.