Hans Lineweaver

Early life Lineweaver received his Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from George Washington University in 1930, and continued on to receive his Master of Arts degree there in 1933. He obtained his PhD in physical chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1936. In 1929, a year before graduating, he was appointed a junior scientific aide to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and worked as a chemist in the fertilizer section of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. In 1930, Lineweaver was transferred to the Food Research Division of the USDA as an associate chemist, pursuing enzyme research. In 1939, he was transferred to the newly built Western Regional Research Laboratory of the USDA in Albany, California, as senior biochemist and head of the enzyme section in the biochemical division. During and after World War II, Lineweaver collaborated with the Quartermasters Corps of the Armed Services in enzyme work related to poultry and powdered egg flavor and processing. In 1948, he was appointed chief of the WRRL Poultry Laboratory in 1949, a position he held until his retirement in 1973, after 44 years of continuous service for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

During his career, Lineweaver was the author or co-author of nearly 100 technical publications and six patents, over half of which concern aspects of poultry and eggs, such as effects of processing on tenderness, and the remainder with enzymology or other aspects of biochemistry, including, for example, a review of pectic enzymes. He and his team developed the first USDA-approved method of pasteurizing egg white, and established a process of converting waste feathers into feed. He has received honors, citations and awards, including the Nicholas Appert Award from the Institute of food Technologists (IFT) in 1973. Hans was a President of the IFT in 1971, and was appointed by the State Department to chair the U.S. Delegation to the 12th World Poultry Congress in Australia in 1962. He was an active member or chairman of organizations including the American Chemical Society, the Poultry Science Association, the World Poultry Science Association, the Poultry and Egg National Board, the Institute of American Poultry Industries, and the American Society of Biological Chemists.

Personal life Hans Lineweaver was born in Pickens, West Virginia, on Christmas Day, 1907, the second child of Rev. Dr. Jesse Luther and Lucille Lineweaver. He was married in 1936 to Margaret Peggy Coon of Baltimore, MD, and was the father of 2, the grandfather of 15, the great-grandfather of 29 at the time of his death, and the great-great-grandfather of 11. He lived in retirement in Walnut Creek, California. Lineweaver died in Walnut Creek on June 10, 2009, at age 101.