Oral history interview with L. Louis Hegedus
- 2013-Dec-05 (First session)
- 2013-Dec-06 (Second session)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.L. Louis Hegedus grew up in Szolnok, Hungary. After completing the chemical engineering program of the Technical University of Budapest, he was recruited to work at the Research Institute for the Organic Chemical Industry, where he helped develop a polyester process. After touring Europe, Hegedus secured a job as a chemical engineer at Daimler-Benz in Mannheim, Germany. He was next accepted into the chemical engineering PhD program at University of California, Berkeley. He published seven papers from his dissertation and wrote the first book on catalyst poisoning. Hegedus next worked on the catalytic converter for General Motors, then accepted a job as a director of central research at W. R. Grace and Company. He was then recruited to be research vice president for North America at Elf Atochem. Hegedus has retired and founded his own consulting firm, and been a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Research Triangle Institute.
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About the Interviewers
Hilary Domush was a Program Associate in the Center for Oral History at CHF from 2007–2015. Previously, she earned a BS in chemistry from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 2003. She then completed an MS in chemistry and an MA in history of science both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her graduate work in the history of science focused on early nineteenth-century chemistry in the city of Edinburgh, while her work in the chemistry was in a total synthesis laboratory. At CHF, she worked on projects such as the Pew Biomedical Scholars, Women in Chemistry, Atmospheric Science, and Catalysis.
Jacqueline Boytim is a program associate in the Institute for Research at the Science History Institute. Before joining the Institute for Research, Boytim worked in visitor services in our museum. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Interviewee biographical information
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Education
| Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
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| 1964 | Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem | Dipl Ing | Chemical Engineering |
| 1972 | University of California, Berkeley | PhD | Chemical Engineering |
Professional Experience
Research Institute for the Organic Chemical Industry
- 1964 to 1965 Research Engineer, Petrochemical Process Research
Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft
- 1965 to 1968 Group Leader, Materials Testing
General Motors Corporation. Research Laboratories
- 1972 to 1974 Associate Senior Research Engineer
- 1974 to 1975 Senior Research Engineer and Group Leader
- 1975 to 1980 Departmental Research Engineer, Catalysis Research
W.R. Grace & Co.
- 1980 to 1984 Director, Inorganic Research
- 1984 to 1995 Vice President, Inorganic Research
- 1995 to 1996 Vice President, Corporate Technical Group
Elf Atochem
- 1996 to 2001 Vice President, Research and Development
- 2001 to 2006 Senior Vice President, Research and Development
Louis Hegedus, LLC
- 2006 President
RTI International
- 2010 to 2013 Distinguished Visiting Fellow
Honors
| Year(s) | Award |
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| 1978 | Chemical Engineer of the Year, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Detroit Section |
| 1980 | Professional Progress Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
| 1981 | Chemtech Progress Award, American Chemical Society |
| 1988 | R. H. Wilhelm Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
| 1989 | Elected member, National Academy of Engineering |
| 1991 | Honorary Doctor of Engineering, Technical University of Budapest |
| 1994 | Honorary Member, Romanian Catalysis Society |
| 1999 | R&D 100 Award for novel method for asbestos abatement, shared with team members at W. R. Grace, R&D Magazine |
| 1999 | Honorary Member, Hungarian National Academy of Engineering |
| 2000 | Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Practice Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
| 2005 | Award of Merit in Appreciation of Contributions Rendered for the Continuing Advancement of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Marketing Economics Group, American Chemical Society |
| 2006 | Management Division Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
| 2008 | Selected to be one of One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
| 2014 | Elected Corresponding Member, Academy of Athens (Greece) |
Cite as
L. Louis Hegedus, interviewed by Hilary Domush and Jacqueline Boytim in Chemical Heritage Foundation on December 5, 2013. Philadelphia: Science History Institute, n.d. Oral History Transcript 0810. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/9k41zf41s.
This citation is automatically generated and may contain errors.
The published version of the transcript may diverge from the interview audio due to edits to the transcript made by staff of the Center for Oral History, often at the request of the interviewee, during the transcript review process.