chemistry

Norman Hackerman

Norman Hackerman is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Norman Hackerman rather than just read about it. In short: Norman Hackerman (March 2, 1912 – June 16, 2007) was an American chemist, professor, and academic administrator who served as the 18th President of the University of Texas at Austin (1967–1970) and later as the 4th President of Rice University (1970–1985). He was an internationally known expert in metal corrosion.

Key takeaways

Norman Hackerman belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Norman Hackerman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Norman Hackerman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Norman Hackerman (March 2, 1912 – June 16, 2007) was an American chemist, professor, and academic administrator who served as the 18th President of the University of Texas at Austin (1967–1970) and later as the 4th President of Rice University (1970–1985). He was an internationally known expert in metal corrosion.

Biography Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he was the only son of Jacob Hackerman and Anna Raffel, immigrants from the Baltic regions of the Russian Empire that later became Estonia and Latvia, respectively. Hackerman earned his bachelor's degree in 1932 and his doctor's degree in chemistry in 1935 from Johns Hopkins University. He taught at Johns Hopkins, Loyola College in Baltimore and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, before working on the Manhattan Project in World War II. He joined the University of Texas in 1945 as an assistant professor of chemistry, became an associate professor in 1946, a full professor in 1950, a department chair in 1952, dean of research in 1960, vice president and provost in 1961, and vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Texas System in 1963. Hackerman left the University of Texas in 1970 for Rice, where he retired 15 years later. He was named professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Texas in 1985 and taught classes until the end of his life. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his many honors are the Olin Palladium Award of the Electrochemical Society, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Chemists (1978), the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award, the Vannevar Bush Award and the National Medal of Science. He was awarded the Acheson Award by the Electrochemical Society in 1984. Hackerman served on advisory committees and boards of several technical societies and government agencies, including the National Science Board, the Texas Governor's Task Force on Higher Education and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation. He also served as editor of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society and as president of the Electrochemical Society.

Family Hackerman's wife of 61 years, Gene Coulbourn, died in 2002; they had three daughters and one son.

Legacy In 1982 The Electrochemical Society created the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award to honor the best paper published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society for a topic in the field of electrochemical science and technology by a young author or authors. In 2000 the Welch Foundation created the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research to recognize the work of young researchers in Texas. The Rice Board of Trustees established the Norman Hackerman Fellowship in Chemistry in honor of Hackerman's 90th birthday in 2002. In 2008, the original Experimental Science Building at the University of Texas at Austin campus was demolished and rebuilt as the Norman Hackerman Experimental Science Building in his name and honor. The building was completed in late 2010, with the opening and dedication ceremony on March 2, 2011, which was both Hackerman's 99th Birthday and the 175th Anniversary of Texas Independence. The main building at the J. Erik Jonsson Center of the National Academy of Sciences is Hackerman House, named in his honor. Hackerman House overlooks Quissett Harbor in Woods Hole MA, on Cape Cod.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Norman Hackerman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Norman Hackerman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Norman Hackerman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Norman Hackerman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Norman Hackerman

In research: Norman Hackerman appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Norman Hackerman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Norman Hackerman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1912 births, 2007 deaths, 20th-century American Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Norman Hackerman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Norman Hackerman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Norman Hackerman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Norman Hackerman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Norman Hackerman in simple terms?

Why does Norman Hackerman matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Norman Hackerman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Norman Hackerman.