Frank J. Biondi

This interview discusses Frank J. Biondi's education, career, and involvement in The Electrochemical Society, beginning with college experiences as a chemical engineering major at Lehigh University and initial work at Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL). Biondi describes his position within the structure of BTL in the 1930s and reasons for his pursuit of graduate education at Columbia University. After completing his master's degree in chemical engineering, he enrolled in the Ph.D. program and became involved in the Manhattan Project. Biondi worked on a gaseous diffusion program to separate uranium 235 from uranium ore, designing the diffusion barrier used for the atom bomb. Biondi describes the reasons for Union Carbide's appropriation of his barrier's design and related patent applications and process details, and the subsequent manufacture of large amounts of barrier. After making his contribution to the Manhattan Project, Biondi returned to BTL work and focused on electronics, initially developing long-life cathodes used by the British during the war. He continued cathode work, becoming involved with the ASTM to standardize three nickel alloys for electronics industry electron tube cathodes. Biondi describes his rise through various BTL departments, his entry into transistor work, and associations with The ECS, which began in an effort to assure BTL metallurgists designing semiconductor devices an outlet for publishing and presenting their work. After touching on solid-state activity and descriptions of new electrochemical processes in ECS publications, the interview returns to Biondi's BTL career progress, particularly his work on transistors. As Biondi reviews his later career, he discusses fuel cell work, relationships with N. Bruce Hannay and R. M. Burns, the electronics industry's first dust-free white room, semiconductor work for satellites, and improvements in battery manufacture and design. The interview closes with comments on the effects of changes related to AT&T and Lucent Technologies, the future of The ECS, and consulting work since retirement from BTL.

Bell Telephone Laboratories

1936 - 1948 Member of Technical Staff, Chemical Research and Development

Bell Telephone Laboratories

1948 - 1958 Member of Technical Staff, Supervisor, Electronic Material and Processing

Bell Telephone Laboratories

1958 - 1962 Department Head, Electronic Material and Processing

Bell Telephone Laboratories

1962 - 1979 Laboratory Director, Electron Device Materials and Processes Laboratory

Manhattan Project

1940 - 1943 Scientist

Bond Engineering, Inc.

1979 - 1989 President

Arnold Thackray

Arnold Thackray founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and served the organization as president for 25 years. He is currently CHF’s chancellor. Thackray received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history of science from Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge, Oxford University, and Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1983 Thackray received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served for more than a quarter century on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science and is currently the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.