William Albert Noyes – Electronic Theories Paper

William Albert Noyes was an American chemist best known for his work in determining the atomic weights of elements. Born on November 6, 1857, in Independence, Iowa, Noyes received both his A.B. and B.S. from Grinnell College, where he would go on to teach chemistry after receiving his undergraduate degrees. In early 1881, Noyes attended Johns Hopkins University and would work under Ira Remsen, earning his Ph.D. one year later in 1882. He then began his career teaching chemistry at the University of Minnesota, University of Tennessee, and Rose Polytechnic Institute.

After several years of teaching, Noyes was hired as the Chief Chemist for the United Stated Bureau of Standards, located in Baltimore, Maryland. While working as the Chief Chemist, Noyes determined the atomic weights of hydrogen to oxygen, and received the Nichols Medal along with H.C.P. Weber for their research into the atomic weight of chlorine. In 1907, Noyes began working for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the head of the Chemistry Department. Noyes regularly published in a variety of journals, such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, of which he was the editor-in-chief, Chemical Abstracts, which he founded, and Chemical Reviews. Noyes was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the Priestley Medal.

William Albert Noyes died on October 24, 1941.