Grant M. Wilson

Grant McDonald Wilson (May 24, 1931 – September 10, 2012) was an American thermodynamicist. He founded the company Wilco (now Wiltec) in 1977.

Biography

Wilson was born in Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua (one of the Mormon colonies in Mexico). He did his undergraduate work at BYU in 1953 and then attended and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a PhD in physical chemistry in 1957.

While at MIT he began his career by developing one of the first computer-based activity coefficient equations.[1][2] Known as the Wilson Equation,[3] it is one of the most widely used equations in the field of industrial thermodynamics for the prediction of phase equilibria.

Wilson has been a research scientist measuring and reporting physical properties and phase equilibria data for most of his career. He joined Shell Research and Development in California upon graduating from MIT, he then joined Air Products and later moved to PVT Inc. of Houston, Texas. While there he performed a number of Research Projects for the Gas Processors Association. At this time he also did extensive work with cubic equations of state (EOS), he was one of the first to modify the alpha form of the Redlich-Kwong EOS to better represent pure component vapor pressures.[4]

He next taught at BYU in Provo, Utah, from 1970 to 1978 while there he was a part of the on-campus research group, the Thermochemical Institute founded by Profs. James J. Christensen and Reed M. Izatt. Wilson left BYU to create the company Wilco (now Wiltec) Research Company in 1977 which measured data for the Chemical Process Industries (CPI).[5]

The Wilson equation was published by Grant M. Wilson as "Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium. XI. A New Expression for the Excess Free Energy of Mixing" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society 86:127-130, 1964.[6]

Wilson and his wife, Reta Raphiel were married in the Logan Temple on September 18, 1950. Together in 2002, they served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangalore, India for two years.

Wilson died on September 10, 2012 in Orem, Utah.

Wilson's hobby was hiking in the mountains. His favorite climb was Mt. Timpanogos.[7]

References
  1. Wilson, Grant McDonald, Vapor-Liquid Equilibria From Measurements of Pressure, Temperature and Over-All Composition. The System Water - 2-Butoxyethanol, Ph.D. Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1958.
  2. Wilson, Grant M., "Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium. XI. A New Expression for the Excess Free Energy of Mixing," Journal of the American Chemical Society, 86:127-130, 1964.
  3. Walas, Stanley M., (1985) Phase Equilibria in Chemical Engineering, Boston: Butterworth, pp. 192-201. ISBN 0-409-95162-5
  4. Wilson, G. M., "Vapor Liquid Equilibria, Correlation By Means Of A Modified Redlich-Kwong Equation Of State," Adv. Cryog. Eng., 9: 168-176, 1964.
  5. Winters, Charlene R. (Summer 2001). "SEVEN HONORED WITH BYU EMERITUS AWARDS". BYU Magazine. Archived from the original on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  6. M. Wilson, Grant. "The Wilson Equation". Archived from the original on 14 October 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  7. "Grant M. Wilson", Obituaries, Daily Herald, September 13, 2012, archived from the original on September 17, 2012, retrieved 2013-08-18
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