William J. Wiswesser | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 3, 1914 Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 17, 1989 (age 75) Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Lehigh University (BS) |
| Known for | Wiswesser line notation Wiswesser rule |
| Awards | Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | computational chemistry chemical information |
| Institutions | Cooper Union United States Army USDA |
William Joseph Wiswesser (December 3, 1914 – December 17, 1989) was an American chemist best known as the creator of the Wiswesser line notation (WLN), which was an innovative way to represent chemical structures in a linear string of characters suitable for computer manipulation. He is also known for the Wiswesser rule, a mathematical formula that predicts the order of atomic orbitals in many-electron atoms.