Dr. James Franck visits the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory

Nobel Prize winner Dr. James Franck visited former students Robert Lad and Sidney Simon at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. From left to right: Abe Silverstein, Robert Lad, Franck, Sidney Simon, and Dorothy Simon. In Germany Franck and Gustav Hertz explored the behavior of free electrons in gasses. This research, which proved some concepts of atomic theory, led to the Nobel Prize in 1925. Franck immigrated to the US, joined the University of Chicago in 1935, and participated in the Manhattan Project. Silverstein was the NACA Lewis Deputy Director and oversaw all research activities. Robert Lad and Sidney Simon were researchers in the Physics of Solids Branch in the NACA Lewis’ Materials and Thermodynamics Division. Lad authored over two dozen technical reports in his 30-plus year career, many dealing with the effects of radiation on materials and liquids. Simon began his career during World War II studying combustion and issues concerning nuclear propulsion. Simon left the NACA a few years later to become a senior engineer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and after a manager at Argonne National Laboratory. Dorothy Simon was a chemist who began her career at du Pont Laboratories in 1945. She joined Argonne in 1948 where she isolated a new potassium isotope. Simon joined the NACA in 1949 and became an assistant chief of the Chemical Branch. In March 1953 Simon received a one-year $10,000 grant to study the oxidization of hydrocarbons at Cambridge University. Upon her return, Simon left the NACA for Magnolia Petroleum Company. She also spent 30 years as the Avco Corporation’s top technical advisor. Simon became an international expert on combustion and high-temperature composites and made contributions to space combustion and ablative coatings.