Willis Whitfield: A simple man with a simple solution that changed the world
17 days ago
- #Innovation
- #Clean Room Technology
- #Sandia National Laboratories
- Willis Whitfield, a physicist at Sandia, invented advanced clean room technology still in use today.
- In 1959, Sandia faced issues with particulates in manufacturing nuclear weapons components, prompting the need for cleaner environments.
- Whitfield sketched the laminar-flow clean room concept on an airplane, leading to a prototype 1,000 times cleaner than existing clean rooms.
- Initial skepticism about Whitfield's data was overcome, and his design became widely adopted by industries like electronics and pharmaceuticals.
- Whitfield's clean room patent was issued in 1964, marking Sandia's earliest tech transfer.
- Despite his achievements, Whitfield remained humble, always crediting his team for their contributions.
- Whitfield also worked on sewage-to-clean-water conversion and NASA spacecraft sterilization techniques.
- Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, Whitfield is honored with a bronze statue at Sandia.