Paul B. Weisz

Paul Burgan Weisz (July 2, 1919 – September 25, 2012) was a Czechoslovak-born American chemist, noted for his work on solid catalysts, which had a major impact on petroleum refining.

Life Weisz was born July 2, 1919, in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, the son of Alexander and Amalia Weisz. They moved to Berlin and finally emigrated to the United States in 1939. He married and was survived by his wife, Rhoda, his son, Randy, and his daughter, Ingrid. He died on September 25, 2012, in State College, Pennsylvania.

Mobil In 1946, he joined Mobil as a Research Assistant, turning his attention to diffusion and catalysis, eventually rising to become Manager of the Central Research Laboratory, and staying there until his retirement in 1984. coauthored with Vince Frilette, a Mobil colleague, became the foundation of shape-selective catalysis (which accelerated certain chemical reactions, but only for molecules of particular shape) and one of his most widely cited papers. Processes based on this and subsequent work were first commercialized in the early 1960s.