File:Portrait of John Hoffman.jpg

English: John Hoffman received his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1942 from Franklin Marshall College and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1949 from Princeton University. He participated in the Manhattan Project (1944-1946, while in U. S. Army) and subsequently (1949-1954) was in the R&D branch of General Electric. In 1954, Hoffman joined NBS as a Research Chemist, becoming Chief of the Dielectrics Section in 1957 and Chief of the Polymers Division in 1964. From there, he advanced to Director of the Institute for Materials Research (1967-1978) and then Director of the National Measurement Laboratory (1978-82). Hoffman retired from NBS in 1982, but continued his career as Professor at the University of Maryland (1982-1985), Director and CEO of the Michigan Molecular Institute (1985-1990), and as Research Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards, including the Soldiers Medal (military decoration, 1946), the U. S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal (1965), the Samuel Wesley Stratton Award of NBS (1967), and election to the National Academy of Engineering (1980). Hoffman passed away on February 21, 2004. This image is part of the MSED Polymers collection.