Herman Samuel Bloch (June 15, 1912 – June 16, 1990) was an American chemist and an inventor. Bloch invented the catalytic converter, a device that removes pollutants from automobile exhaust fumes.The New York Times:Obituaries:Herman S. Bloch, 78, Chemist and Inventor, Published: June 19, 1990 Bloch held more than 270 patents.National Academies Press, V.87 He was the deputy director of research of the aerospace company AlliedSignal Inc, and chairman of the Cook County Housing Authority. He received the Chemical Pioneer Award in 1989 from the American Institute of Chemists.American Institute of Chemists:Chemical Pioneer Award Winners: He received the Ernest J. Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis, the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry in 1974, and the Richard J. Kokes Memorial Award and Lectureship from Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Bloch was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.
Career Bloch was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Ukrainian-JewishMartin Harry Greenberg, The Jewish lists: physicists and generals, actors and writers, and hundreds of other lists of accomplished Jews, Schocken Books (1979), p. 113Abraham Scheinberg & Harry Cohen, American Jews: Their Lives and Achievements: A Contemporary Biographical Record, vol. 2, American Jewish Literary Foundation (1958), p. 784 immigrants Aaron and Esther Bloch. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1936 from the University of Chicago.
References
External links James P. Shoffner, "Herman Samuel Bloch", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2005)