Digital Collections

Oral history interview with Seymour Meyerson

  • 1991-Mar-07

Oral history interview with Seymour Meyerson

  • 1991-Mar-07

Seymour Meyerson was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and attended the University of Chicago from which he received his undergraduate degree. By 1943 Meyerson began active service with the US military, spending the majority of his time with the Signal Corps; he also performed important work as the technical liaison officer between the Manhattan District and Standard Oil Company (Indiana). His time with the military afforded him the opportunity to be trained in electronics and to encounter his first mass spectrometer. In 1946 Meyerson started what would become a nearly forty year career with Standard Oil Company (Indiana) (later the Amoco Corporation). From the outset, Meyerson was involved with the mass spectrometry group, first conducting quantitative gas analysis on gases and low-boiling liquids, consisting of hydrocarbons and fixed gases.

Property Value
Interviewee
Interviewer
Place of interview
Format
Genre
Extent
  • 96 pages
Language
Subject
Rights Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Rights holder
  • Science History Institute
Credit line
  • Courtesy of Science History Institute

About the Interviewer

Michael A. Grayson is a member of the Mass Spectrometry Research Resource at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his BS degree in physics from St. Louis University in 1963 and his MS in physics from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1965. He is the author of over 45 papers in the scientific literature. Before joining the Research Resource, he was a staff scientist at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratory. While completing his undergraduate and graduate education, he worked at Monsanto Company in St. Louis, where he learned the art and science of mass spectrometry. Grayson is a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS), and has served many different positions within that organization. He has served on the Board of Trustees of CHF and is currently a member of CHF's Heritage Council. He currently pursues his interest in the history of mass spectrometry by recording oral histories, assisting in the collection of papers, and researching the early history of the field.

Institutional location

Department
Collection
Oral history number 0398

Related Items

Interviewee biographical information

Born
  • December 04, 1916
  • Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died
  • May 28, 2016
  • Asheville, North Carolina, United States

Education

Year Institution Degree Discipline
1938 University of Chicago SB Chemistry

Professional Experience

Deavitt Laboratories

  • 1941 to 1942 Chemist
  • 1942 Army Ordnance, Kankakee Ordnance Works

United States. Army

  • 1943 to 1946 Army Signal Corps
  • 1945 Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan Engineer District

Standard Oil Company (Indiana)

  • 1946 to 1951 Chemist
  • 1951 to 1954 Assistant Project Chemist
  • 1954 to 1957 Project Chemist
  • 1958 to 1960 Senior Project Chemist
  • 1960 to 1962 Senior Research Scientist
  • 1962 to 1972 Research Associate
  • 1972 to 1980 Senior Research Associate
  • 1980 to 1984 Research Consultant

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PDF — 609 KB
meyerson_s_0398_FULL.pdf

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.

Complete Interview Audio File Web-quality download

6 Separate Interview Segments Archival-quality downloads