Francis Wheeler Loomis

Francis Wheeler Loomis (August 4, 1889 – February 9, 1976), born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, was an American scientist most widely known for his contributions in the field of physics. Loomis received his undergraduate degree and, in 1917, his PhD from Harvard University. His thesis was on thermodynamic measurements of mercury.

Loomis was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1928 studying abroad at Zürich and Göttingen. In 1929, Loomis came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to become the head of the department of physics, a position he would retain until 1957. Loomis was elected president of the American Physical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1949. Loomis founded the Control Systems Laboratory as a research center for national defense purposes during the Korean War. After the war ended and the work done there became unclassified, the facility was renamed the Coordinated Science Laboratory.

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign the main physics building was renamed the Loomis Laboratory of Physics posthumously in his honor.