Distinguished Engineer Citations

                 

James H. Wright, Ph.D.

Distinguished Engineer

1973

Degree

Chemical Engineering – 1948

 

Citation

At Time of Nomination in 1973

James H. Wright, born in Memphis, Texas, in 1926, received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1948, and his M.S. in 1954. He earned a Ph.D. in 1957, in the same specialization, from the University of Pittsburgh.

By 1952, as a member of the staff of Gulf Oil Corporation, he had developed the first industrial desulphurization plant for natural gas, pioneering in the process of the conversion of concentrated hydrogen sulfide gas into elemental sulphur.

Mr. Wright played a significant part in the development of large sodium pumps. He assisted in nuclear superheat and fast breeder reactor development for the Atomic Energy Commission. He served as a member of the Special Nuclear Safety Standards Committee; as a member of the Advisory Panel for the Selection Committee on Government Research, United States House of Representatives; and as a member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission mission to the USSR on the exchange of nuclear reactor technology.

Mr. Wright is a member of the environmental working group of the National Academy of Engineers and a consultant to President Nixon’s Natural Water Commission. As director of the Westinghouse Environmental Systems Department, he has organized and managed a team of experts analyzing and interpreting environmental problems associated with the production of electric power and its transmission, and assisting governmental regulatory agencies in these realms.

For his advancement of mechanistic knowledge, for his development of new aspects of science and then application, and for his leadership in the area of environmental improvement, Texas Tech University nominates James H. Wright: DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER.

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