Abraham Savitzky Papers

Abraham Savitzky was an American analytical chemist. Savitzky was born on May 29, 1919 in New York, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree from the New York State College for Teachers (now University at Albany, SUNY) in 1941. During World War II, Savitzky served in the United States Air Force. Following the war, he obtained his master’s degree (1947) and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Columbia University respectively. In 1950, after working at Columbia for a year as a research associate in electron microscopy, he began a long career with Perkin-Elmer Corporation.

Savitzky started with Perkin-Elmer as a staff scientist who was chiefly concerned with design and development of infrared instruments. He rapidly moved up the ranks in the corporation. By 1956, he was named Perkin-Elmer’s New Product Coordinator for the Instrument Division, and as the years passed, he continued to gain more and more recognition for his work in the company. Most of his work with Perkin-Elmer focused on computer-aided analytical chemistry, data reduction, infrared spectroscopy, time-sharing systems, and computer plotting. He retired from Perkin-Elmer in 1985.

While working a full-time job at Perkin-Elmer, Savitzky also managed to concurrently work on other committees and projects. He served on the National Resource Council Evaluation Panel on Atomic and Molecular Physics from 1970 to 1972. Savitzky was also the Director of the Time Share Peripherals Corporation from 1970 to 1977 and served as a representative for the Science Apparatus Makers Association from 1972 to 1980. Following his retirement from Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Savitzky became the President of Silvermine Resources, Incorporated, where he remained for several years.

Abraham Savitzky was awarded seven U.S. Patents pertaining to computerization and chemical apparatus. During his long career, he presented numerous papers, and wrote several manuscripts, including “Smoothing and Differentiation of Data by Simplified Least Squares Procedures”. This paper, which is the collaborative effort of Savitzky and Marcel J. E. Golay, describes the Savitzky-Golay Smoothing Filter for digital filtering. Their paper was published in Analytical Chemistry, Volume 36, in July 1964. It is one of the most famous, respected, and heavily cited articles in its field.

In recognition of his many significant accomplishments in the field of analytical chemistry and computer science, Savitzky received the Society of Applied Spectroscopy Award in 1983, and the Williams-Wright Award from the Coblentz Society in 1986. Savitzky was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Physics Society, the Optical Society of America, and many other professional organizations. Abraham Savitzky died on February 5, 1999 in Naples, Florida.

Sources

Abraham Savitzky Papers, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.