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4.5 Research Pioneers Pre 1950
Farrington Daniels SES President 1964-1967
(1889-1972)
Country: USA
Year joined industry/research: 1911
Institute: University of Wisconsin
Still Active in Research/Industry: No
Farrington Daniels was a physical chemist and is considered one of the pioneers of the modern-day use of solar
energy. He joined the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor in 1920 and remained until his retirement
in 1959 as chairman of the chemistry department. Daniels became a leading international expert on the principles
involved with the practical utilization of solar energy. He pursued understanding of the heat and the convection as
well as the electrical energy that can be derived from the sun. In 1952 Farrington Daniels met Henry Sargent and
suggested to him that there was a need for an organization to promote the development and application of solar
energy. Two years later (1954), Sargent, organised the Association for Applied Solar Energy. In 1953, Farrington
Daniels organised a symposium at Wisconsin on solar energy that again covered a wide range of topics, with a broad
range of speakers. Thirty speakers from five countries participated, with proceedings published in the book ‘Solar
Energy Research’. He was involved in the planning and execution of the first major activities of AFASE—the 1955
Phoenix World Symposium on Applied Solar Energy (where he was a keynote speaker) and the Tucson Conference on
the Scientific Basis. Farrington Daniels built many good friendships across the small but growing international solar
energy research world The AFASE became known as the Solar Energy Society in the early 1960’s, and Farrington
Daniels became its first president; a position he maintained until 1967. Farrington Daniel won a number of wards
including the Willard Gibbs Award (1955) and the Priestley Medal (1957). After his death in 1972, ISES established
the Farringhton Daniels award in honour of the man who inspired the formation of the organization and who did so
much to keep the Society alive during the crisis years.
Julio Hirschmann (1902-1981)
Country: Chile
Year Started Research: 1937
Title of Research: Solar Energy
University: Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria
Still Active in Research: No
Julio Hirschamnn Recht was born on October 25, 1902, in Bolivia, with Chilean nationality. He studied mechanical
engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. Between 1932 and 1936 he worked in Russia
on issues related to hydraulic machines, the chemical industry at the University of Leningrad. In 1937 he returned to
Chile to work as a professor at the Technical University Federico Santa María (UTFSM), Valparaíso. In 1944 he was
appointed Dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and later became Vice-Rector. He was the first director of the Solar
Energy Laboratory from 1960. From 1974 he was director of the Solar Energy Research Center of the university.
Hirschmann was aware of the unique conditions of solar radiation in northern Chile and was in permanent contact
with researchers working on solar measurements in Chile and the world. In 1960 Hirschmann received Farrington
Daniels in Chile, traveling together to Antofagasta. In 1961 he participated as an official delegate of Chile in the
United Nations Conference on New Sources of Energy, in Rome; in 1962 he travelled to Melbourne to participate in
the World Energy Conference and then returned to Australia in 1970 for the ISES conference that year. In 1970 he
participated in the ISES conference in Maryland, USA and then, in 1973, he was a Chilean delegate at the UNESCO
world congress in Paris. In Chile, Hirschmann and his associates promoted the creation of a solarimetric data center
for the entire country. As a result, in 1965 the Chilean Meteorological Office and UTFSM signed an agreement to
create the National Archive of Solar Evaluations at the Solar Energy Laboratory. On December 5, 1970, this National
Solarimetric Archive was inaugurated in the presence of delegates from the United Nations World Meteorological
Organization. Julio Hirschmann died in 1981 in Valparaíso.
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