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Svec, Harry J.

Published onOct 15, 2021
Svec, Harry J.
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(June 24, 1918 - November 28, 2006)

Quick Facts

Part of the staff on the Manhattan Project, he served as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty until his retirement.


Source: https://isuspecialcollections.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/harry-j-svec-devoted-chemist-and-cyclone/

Harry J. Svec, a chemist and Iowa State University professor, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 24, 1918.1 After graduating magna cum laude from John Carroll University with a triple major in biology, chemistry, and mathematics,2 he attended graduate school at Iowa State College (now University) in 1941 to study chemistry.3 Initially, his interests were in biochemistry and medical research, but the war would eventually change his course.

When he first began at Iowa State, he worked on a biophysical chemistry project while studying his coursework. The aim of this project to get aerobacters to produce major amounts of 2,3 butylene glycol by fermenting xylose, a five carbon sugar found in corn cobs.4 Eventually he got nutrient media for bacteria that enabled them to ferment xylose solutions producing approximately 30% 2,3 butylene glycol; this was a significant increase from the usual 2.5-3.5%.5 Another student at this time was working on catalytically dehydrating glycol to 1,3 butadiene needed to produce synthetic rubber.6 Xylose was not available in the quantities needed for this work, so Svec produced his own by hydrolyzing xylan found in ground corn cobs in a dilute solution of sulphuric acid.7 This project came to end before long, however. While all of this was happening, Svec was teaching first-year chemistry courses and was getting deferment from military service by the draft board in Cleveland due to his teaching work.8 This work involved instructing approximately 70 V-12 beginning chemistry students, who were on a fast-track to graduate so that they could become naval officers.9 Like his biophysical research projects, this also came to an end as World War II was heating up.

In 1944, after Svec’s college deferment was cancelled, he was drafted into the armed forces and reported to Fort Snelling, Minnesota.10 After a long wait, it turned out that Dr. Frank Spedding, professor of chemistry at Iowa State College and later director of Ames Laboratory, had recruited him to do work to support the Manhattan Project, and so he returned to Ames.11 At first, his primary duty was glassblowing in order to make glass apparatuses for the department, including diffusion pumps.12 The previous glassblower had left for a position elsewhere, and Svec had a great deal of experience in the craft and had done some glassblowing previously in the department.13 After his apprentice, Wayne “Breezy” Jones developed enough skill, Svec then got to work more on the scientific advancements being made for the project.14 Along with other Ames Laboratory staff, Svec worked on refining uranium to develop what is known as the Ames Process, which is a particularly efficient way of purifying uranium. From 1942-1945, the Ames Laboratory produced about 1,000 tons of uranium for the Manhattan Project.15 After the project ended, Svec was appointed to the Ames Laboratory/Institute for Atomic Research and earned his Ph.D. in 1950, at which point he gained faculty status.16 He served as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty until his retirement in 1983, when he was granted Professor Emeritus status.17

Over the course of his career, Svec taught classes, conducted and published a great deal of research, and was actively involved in professional organizations, such as the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. He was a Fellow of what is now the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was a founding editor of the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Physics (now the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry).18 Mass spectrometry was his main area of study, and Svec was an early contributor to the field of laser mass spectrometry.19 He built the first mass spectrometers at Iowa State,20 components of which can be found in the Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives.

After his retirement in 1983, Svec finished writing a history on Iowa State University’s Chemistry Department, which was published by the department in 2006. He also received the American Chemical Society’s Zimmerman Award for Environmental Science in 1984 for his work in developing the resin extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods for removing organic pollutants in water.21 Upon his retirement in 1983, Svec had been at Iowa State for 42 years.

While pursuing his studies at Iowa State, Svec met Edna M. Bruno, a graduate student studying institutional management at the college. The two were married in 1943 and by 1960 had a total of nine children together – five sons and four daughters.22 Dr. Svec died on November 28, 2006, and his wife, Edna, followed on June 29, 2013.

Selected Sources

  1. “Remembering Harry Svec: A Pioneer in Mass Spectrometry Dies at 88,” Department of Chemistry Iowa State University Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2007, 4. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/imported/news/newsletters/docs/Spring-07.pdf.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. “How Harry J. Svec Came to Be in Ames, Iowa,” undated. Box 2, Folder 1, Harry J. Svec Papers, RS 13/6/53, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. “Remembering Harry Svec: A Pioneer in Mass Spectrometry Dies at 88,” Department of Chemistry Iowa State University Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2007, 4. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/imported/news/newsletters/docs/Spring-07.pdf.

  11. “How Harry J. Svec Came to Be in Ames, Iowa,” undated. Box 2, Folder 1, Harry J. Svec Papers, RS 13/6/53, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Ibid.

  15. “Our History,” Ames Laboratory, accessed September 28, 2016, https://www.ameslab.gov/about/our-history.

  16. “Remembering Harry Svec: A Pioneer in Mass Spectrometry Dies at 88,” Department of Chemistry Iowa State University Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2007, 4. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/imported/news/newsletters/docs/Spring-07.pdf.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid.

  19. R. S. Houk, M. A. Grayson, and Michael L. Gross, “Obituary: Harry J. Svec June 24, 1918-November 28, 2006.” Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 18, no. 5 (2007): 970-971, doi:10.1016/j.jasms.2007.02.002

  20. “Remembering Harry Svec: A Pioneer in Mass Spectrometry Dies at 88,” Department of Chemistry Iowa State University Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2007, 4. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/imported/news/newsletters/docs/Spring-07.pdf.

  21. R. S. Houk, M. A. Grayson, and Michael L. Gross, “Obituary: Harry J. Svec June 24, 1918-November 28, 2006.” Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 18, no. 5 (2007): 970-971, doi:10.1016/j.jasms.2007.02.002.

  22. “Edna Mary Bruno Svec July 23, 1916-June29, 2013,” Ames Tribune (Ames, IA), Jul. 6, 2013.

Additional Sources

Goldman, Joanne Abel. “National Science in the Nation’s Heartland: The Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, 1942-1965.” Technology and Culture 41, no. 3 (2000): 435–59.

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