ECS President | 1919-1920
Wilder Dwight Bancroft (1867 – 1953) was born in Middletown, R.I., on October 1, 1867. He received an AB from Harvard University in 1888 and a PhD from Leipzig University in 1892. He received honorary ScD from Lafayette College, 1919, and Cambridge University, 1923. He was an Assistant in Chemistry at Harvard from 1888-1889 and 1893-1894 then Instructor 1894-1895. He moved to Cornell University in 1895 as Assistant Professor. In 1903, he became Professor. His research activities included: the Phase rule, mass law, electrochemistry, alloys, irreversible reactions, the chemistry of light, and colloid chemistry.
He served as Chairman of the Chemistry Division of the National Research Council in 1919; the board of visitors at the Bureau of Standards, 1922-25; Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, 1896; Lieutenant Colonel, C.W.S. National Academy; and Chemical Society President, 1910.
Dr. Bancroft was elected President of The Electrochemical Society in 1905 and 1919 (the only president to be elected twice). He was made an Honorary Member of The Electrochemical Society in 1925 and an Honorary Member of London Chemical Society and Société Chimique de France.
