Dudley Maurice Newitt

Dudley Maurice Newitt was a British chemical engineer, born in London on 28 April 1894 and died in Farnham, Surrey on 14 March 1980. He began as an assistant chemist for Nobel in Scotland, served in the East Surrey Regiment in the First World War and won the Military Cross. In 1921 he took a first class science degree in chemistry at the Royal College of Science and went on to postgraduate study in chemical engineering at Imperial College, London. During the Second World War he was scientific director of the Special Operations Executive, responsible for developing technology for sabotage and espionage, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1945 he became professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College, headed the department from 1952 and served as pro-rector from 1956 until 1961. He received the Rumford Medal in 1962.