David S. Breslow

David S. Breslow
Breslow in November 1982
Born	(1916-08-13)August 13, 1916 New York City, U.S.
Died	May 26, 1995(1995-05-26) (aged 78) Newark, Delaware, U.S.
Resting place	Jewish Community Cemetery, Brandywine Hundred
Alma mater	City University of New York (B.S.) Duke University (Ph.D)
Spouse	Ann Goodman Breslow
Children	3
Scientific career
Fields	Polymer chemistry
Institutions	Hercules, Inc. University of Delaware

David S. Breslow (August 13, 1916 – May 26, 1995) was an American industrial chemist best known for his work on polymers.^[1][2]

Breslow was born on August 13, 1916,^[3] and raised in Queens, New York.^[2] He developed an early interest in chemistry after inheriting a chemistry set which he and a friend used to make stink bombs.^[4] He graduated from City College of New York in 1937 and subsequently earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from Duke University in 1940.^[5][6] During World War II, he did post-doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology and research at the University of California, Berkeley and Duke.^[2][6]

In 1946, he joined the chemical manufacturing company Hercules.^[2] He rose through the ranks, and in 1971, he was named senior research associate of the New Enterprise Department, the top technical position at the company.^[7]

His research focused on polymers.^[1] He helped develop catalysts for the chemical reactions that produce polyethylene and polypropylene, and worked on the stabilization of those materials, leading to a wide array of consumer plastics applications.^[1] He also conducted research on the potential use of copolymer MVE-2 as a cancer drug.^[8][4]

He taught part-time at the University of Delaware from 1972 to 1987.^[5] During the 1964–1965 academic year, he took a sabbatical at the University of Munich in Germany,^[7] and in 1971 he taught at the University of Notre Dame.^[5]

Over the course of his career, he acquired 79 patents^[2] and authored 90 scientific papers as well as a two-volume textbook on polymers.^[5]

He was president of the Delaware chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS),^[when?] and later served on the national ACS board of directors.^[9]

Breslow retired in 1982.^[2] In 1988, he received the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science.^[10] He died on May 26, 1995, at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware.^[1]

Breslow married Ann Goodman after World War II.^[2] They had three children^[1] and lived in Brandywine Hundred outside Wilmington, Delaware.^[2] He was a member of Congregation Beth Shalom.^[2]

• Breslow, David S. (1966). The Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds: Multi‐Sulfur and Sulfur and Oxygen Five‐ and Six‐Membered Heterocycles. New York: Interscience Publishers. ISBN 978-0-470-38196-0.